Dendritic nucleotides: interaction with an aliphatic acid monolayer

Dendrimeric-T and dendrimeric-A with 36 nucleotides were synthesized using phosphoramidite reagents. These dendrimers contain the nucleosides dA and dT, which are the components of the dA-dT base pair. Branching was obtained using a bifurcated and trifurcated reagent. The dendrimers were purified by ion-exchange chromatography. No specific interactions between these dendrimers were observed using atomic force microscopy. However, the dendrimeric-T is able to disrupt monolayers of fatty acids, resulting in a reorientation of the lipids (from head-to-tail to head-to-head) as demonstrated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM).