AL's+Milestone+-+The+Properties+of+DNA

You must know, understand, and be able to explain the properties of DNA for this project of depositing DNA on silicon surfaces. What is DNA? Essentially, **DNA** is a kind of nucleic acid formed by a double-helix. It is the basis for life and contain the information necessary for the passing of genes. The helices of DNA molecule itself are made up of nucleotides, or chemical substances made up of three parts: a sugar, a phosphate, and a base. In the case of DNA, the sugar is the **deoxyribose** and the **phosphate** (negatively charged, PO4 3−) make up the DNA backbone of the helix, which is very relevant to this project. Each helix has **base pairs** (Adenine, Thymine Guanine, Cytosine). The bases on each helix are bonded together by hydrogen bonds to form a **double helix**. DNA is used in this project because DNA is self-assembling and can be used in predictable ways.

Here is a visual representation to help guide your understanding:

This image is from [|Biologycorner.com]



Specifically, in my project, we use **plasmid DNA**, which is nothing more than circular DNA. You may be wondering, why use plasmid DNA? Quite simply, plasmids are cheap, easy to acquire, and easy to manipulate. There are also many types of DNA plasmids. The kind we use at the Notre Dame lab is called puc 19. Puc 19 has 2,686 base pairs. This image has been borrowed from [|dwb.unl.edu].



Next Milestone - Explain the Large Goal of Depositing Monolayers and DNA on Silicon with Nanotechnology