Formation of liquid-crystalline microphases of two-chain nucleic acids and synthetic polynucleotides of low molecular mass

Abstract

The authors have studied the kinetics of growth of an intense band in the spectrum of circular dichroism on formation in water-salt solutions of polyethylene glycol of the liquid crystalline microphases of DNA and synthetic polynucleotides. Irrespective of the sign of the band determined by the direction of the helical twist of the microphase the formation of two sets of microphases follows the same mechanism. The introduction of defects into the secondary structure of DNA or polynucleotides results in the formation instead of a helically twisted of an optically inactive liquid crystalline microphase of the nemetic type.