RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Polymer-Conjugated Carbon Nanotubes for Biomolecule Loading
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.07.22.453422
DO 10.1101/2021.07.22.453422
A1 Christopher T. Jackson
A1 Jeffrey W. Wang
A1 Eduardo González-Grandío
A1 Natalie S. Goh
A1 Jaewan Mun
A1 Sejal Krishnan
A1 Markita P. Landry
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/23/2021.07.22.453422.abstract
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.