Nucleic acid liquids

• Published in: Reports on progress in physics Vol. 87; no. 6; pp. 66601 - 66615
• Main Authors: Abraham, Gabrielle R, Chaderjian, Aria S, N Nguyen, Anna B, Wilken, Sam, Saleh, Omar A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IOP Publishing 01.06.2024
• Subjects: biomolecular liquids; DNA self assembly; nucleic acids; phase transitions; Biomolecular liquids; Nucleic acids; DNA self assembly; Phase transitions
• ISSN: 0034-4885; 1361-6633
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6633/ad4662

The confluence of recent discoveries of the roles of biomolecular liquids in living systems and modern abilities to precisely synthesize and modify nucleic acids (NAs) has led to a surge of interest in liquid phases of NAs. These phases can be formed primarily from NAs, as driven by basepairing interactions, or from the electrostatic combination (coacervation) of negatively charged NAs and positively charged molecules. Generally, the use of sequence-engineered NAs provides the means to tune microsopic particle properties, and thus imbue specific, customizable behaviors into the resulting liquids. In this way, researchers have used NA liquids to tackle fundamental problems in the physics of finite valence soft materials, and to create liquids with novel structured and/or multi-functional properties. Here, we review this growing field, discussing the theoretical background of NA liquid phase separation, quantitative understanding of liquid material properties, and the broad and growing array of functional demonstrations in these materials. We close with a few comments discussing remaining open questions and challenges in the field.