On the conformation of DNA confined in a nanochannel or absorbed at an interface.

Abstract

The major focus of work in this thesis concerns the relationship between molecular behavior of DNA and a range of processing conditions including ionic strength, multi-valent ions, solvent, molecular weight etc. A variety of techniques including atomic force microscopy (AFM), fluorescence microscopy (FM) and nano-fluidics were utilized in order to uncover the role that these experimental conditions play in the formation of many 2D surface-directed and 1D channel-directed DNA structures. In previous years, attention was directed towards understanding the physical and chemical phenomena that are important in the condensation of DNA. In this thesis, we seek to uncover the behavior of single stranded and double stranded DNA molecules, and explore the mechanism behind the compaction into 1 and 2 dimensional structures.