Model for Assembly and Gelation of Four-Armed DNA Dendrimers

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical model of four-armed DNA dendrimers that demonstrates a reversible gelation process, revealing how strand length influences the gel transition temperature and bridging physical and chemical gel behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a new model for DNA dendrimer assembly, showing how temperature and strand length control gelation and percolation, advancing understanding of biomaterial self-assembly.

Findings

System forms a reversible gel network in a narrow temperature range.

Gel transition temperature can be tuned by strand length.

The model bridges physical and chemical gel behaviors.

Abstract

We introduce and numerically study a model designed to mimic the bulk behavior of a system composed of single-stranded DNA dendrimers. Complementarity of the base sequences of different strands results in the formation of strong cooperative intermolecular links. We find that in an extremely narrow temperature range the system forms a large-scale, low-density disordered network via a thermo-reversible gel transition. By controlling the strand length, the gel transition temperature can be made arbitrarily close to the percolation transition, in contrast with recent model systems of physical gelation. This study helps the understanding of self-assembly in this class of new biomaterials and provides an excellent bridge between physical and chemical gels.