PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christopher T. Jackson
AU  - Jeffrey W. Wang
AU  - Eduardo González-Grandío
AU  - Natalie S. Goh
AU  - Jaewan Mun
AU  - Sejal Krishnan
AU  - Markita P. Landry
TI  - Polymer-Conjugated Carbon Nanotubes for Biomolecule Loading
AID  - 10.1101/2021.07.22.453422
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.07.22.453422
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/23/2021.07.22.453422.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/23/2021.07.22.453422.full
AB  - Nanomaterials have emerged as an invaluable tool for the delivery of biomolecules such as DNA and RNA, with various applications in genetic engineering and post-transcriptional genetic manipulation. Alongside this development, there has been an increasing use of polymer-based techniques, such as polyethyleneimine (PEI), to electrostatically load polynucleotide cargoes onto nanomaterial carriers. However, there remains a need to assess nanomaterial properties, conjugation conditions, and biocompatibility of these nanomaterial-polymer constructs, particularly for use in plant systems. In this work, we develop mechanisms to optimize DNA loading on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with a library of polymer-SWNT constructs and assess DNA loading ability, polydispersity, and both chemical and colloidal stability. Counterintuitively, we demonstrate that polymer hydrolysis from nanomaterial surfaces can occur depending on polymer properties and attachment chemistries, and describe mitigation strategies against construct degradation. Given the growing interest in delivery applications in plant systems, we also assess the toxicity of polymer-based nanomaterials in plants and provide recommendations for future design of nanomaterial-based polynucleotide delivery strategies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.