(276d) In Vitro Selection of DNA Aptamers for the Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

In
Vitro Selection of DNA Aptamers
for the Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Oxana
Selivanova and Ming Zheng

Polymers
Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology

100
Bureau Dr., Gaithersburg, MD 20899

Aptamers
are nucleic acid oligonucleotides selected from random DNA sequence
libraries.  They exhibit high affinity
and selectivity to various targets thus serving as the molecular recognition
elements.  DNA aptamers
are typically selected via a Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential
Enrichment (SELEX) procedure (1).  In
this work we use the SELEX method to identify DNA aptamers
that strongly bind and recognize the single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT).  DNA is known to bind to SWCNTs, which has
been used for the SWCNT separation into individual chirality and uniform lengths
(2, 3).   SELEX will allow identification of the
strongest binding sequences that will aid in the design of the SWCNT separation
technology and nano-medicine applications.  In this work we perform several selection
rounds via SWCNT-DNA binding followed by the asymmetric PCR (aPCR).  After several
rounds only the strongest SWCNT binding DNA sequences remain, which are identified
via cloning followed by sequencing.  The
sequence pattern revealed will be discussed.

1.       Tuerk,
C., Gold, L. 1990. Systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment:
RNA ligands to bacteriophage T4 DNA polymerase. Science 249: 505-510.

2.       Tu,
X., Manohar, S., Jagota,
A., Zheng, M. 2009. DNA sequence motifs for structure-specific recognition and
separation of carbon nanotubes. Nature Letters 460: 250-253.

3.       Tu,
X., Zheng, M. 2008. A DNA-based approach to the carbon nanotube sorting
problem. Nano Res. 1: 185-194.