Intracrystalline structure of DNA molecules stabilized in the layered double hydroxide Original Research Article

DNA was successfully intercalated into layered double hydroxide (LDH), Mg2Al(OH)6NO3·0.1H2O, through ion exchange reaction to form DNA–LDH nanohybrid. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic results demonstrate that the DNA molecules are stabilized between the hydroxide layers. According to the circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic studies, the B-form DNA molecules are electrostatically bound in the interlayer space of LDHs upon satisfying the charge neutralization condition. However, the intercalated DNA molecules are supposed to be more or less twisted due to the charge mismatch between anionic DNA and cationic LDH. To verify the size of DNA strands in the LDH lattice, the DNA molecules with different length of 0.2–5 kbps were intercalated into the LDHs with various particle size. Three kinds of LDHs with discrete particle size were synthesized through both coprecipitation and hydrothermal methods. From the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the particle sizes were determined as ∼80, 150, and 300 nm, respectively. Thus prepared DNA–LDH nanohybrids with various particle size were treated with DNA destroying enzyme such as DNase I. Since the LDHs (80, 150, 300 nm) are smaller in size than the DNA molecules, some parts of the intercalated DNA chains are eventually dangling outside of the host LDH layer. Therefore, the dangling part of DNA chains and the surface adsorbed DNA were decomposed quickly by DNase I treatment. The DNA strands protected by LDH layers could intentionally be recovered by treating with an acidic solution. The length of DNA strands thus recovered were confirmed by electrophoresis, and determined to be ∼200 bps irrespective of the particle size of LDHs.