ABSTRACT
Guanine-rich oligonucleotides and short telomeric DNA sequences can self-associate into G-quartet stabilized complexes. We discovered that this self-association can occur in sequencing reactions and that higher-order structures stimulate DNA polymerase to synthesize extended DNA strands. Base analogues were used to identify Hoogsteen base pairings as stabilizing forces in these stimulatory DNA structures. Scanning force microscopy confirmed that quartet-DNA was formed from these oligomers and that these extended, four-stranded structures could be bound by DNA polymerase. Since guanine quartet-stabilized structures are proposed to exist in vivo, such structures may stimulate DNA polymerization in vivo.
Subject(s)
DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase/metabolism , Guanine/chemistry , Telomere/enzymology , 2-Aminopurine/chemistry , Animals , Base Pairing , DNA/biosynthesis , DNA/chemistry , DNA Replication , Deoxyguanine Nucleotides/chemistry , Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel , Humans , Hypotrichida , Oligonucleotides/biosynthesis , Oligonucleotides/chemistry , Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Sequence Analysis, DNA , TetrahymenaABSTRACT
Field emission of electrons from individually mounted carbon nanotubes has been found to be dramatically enhanced when the nanotube tips are opened by laser evaporation or oxidative etching. Emission currents of 0.1 to 1 microampere were readily obtained at room temperature with bias voltages of less than 80 volts. The emitting structures are concluded to be linear chains of carbon atoms, Cn, (n = 10 to 100), pulled out from the open edges of the graphene wall layers of the nanotube by the force of the electric field, in a process that resembles unraveling the sleeve of a sweater.
ABSTRACT
Carbon nanotubes produced in arcs have been found to have the form of multiwalled fullerenes, at least over short lengths. Sintering of the tubes to each other is the predominant source of defects that limit the utility of these otherwise perfect fullerene structures. The use of a water-cooled copper cathode minimized such defects, permitting nanotubes longer than 40 micrometers to be attached to macroscopic electrodes and extracted from the bulk deposit. A detailed mechanism that features the high electric field at (and field-emission from) open nanotube tips exposed to the arc plasma, and consequent positive feedback effects from the neutral gas and plasma, is proposed for tube growth in such arcs.
