Self-assembly of cholesterol DNA at liquid crystal/aqueous interface and its application for DNA detection

In this letter, we report a strategy of detecting the DNA targets by using a thin layer of self-assembled cholesterol-labeled DNA probes at the liquid crystal (LC)/aqueous interface. When the system is exposed to 51 mu g/ml of complementary DNA targets, the optical appearance of LC shows a continuous change from dark to bright under the crossed polars within 15 min. No obvious change can be observed when the system is exposed to one or two base-pair mismatch DNA targets. This system provides a principle for label-free and real-time detection of DNA targets without any fluorescent labeling. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3247895]