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Cell-free gene expression in localized DNA brushes on a biochip has been shown to depend on gene density and orientation, suggesting that brushes form compartments with partitioned conditions. At high density, the interplay of DNA entropic elasticity, electrostatics, and excluded volume interactions leads to collective conformations that affect the function of DNA-associated proteins. Hence, measuring the collective interactions in dense DNA, free of proteins, is essential for understanding crowded cellular environments and for the design of cell-free synthetic biochips. Here, we assembled dense DNA polymer brushes on a biochip along a density gradient and directly measured the collective extension of DNA using evanescent fluorescence. DNA of 1 kbp in a brush undergoes major conformational changes, from a relaxed random coil to a stretched configuration, following a universal function of density to ionic strength ratio with scaling exponent of 1/3. DNA extends because of the swelling force induced by the osmotic pressure of ions, which are trapped in the brush to maintain local charge neutrality, in competition with the restoring force of DNA entropic elasticity. The measurements reveal in DNA crossover between regimes of osmotic, salted, mushroom, and quasineutral brush. It is surprising to note that, at physiological ionic strength, DNA density does not induce collective stretch despite significant chain overlap, which implies that excluded volume interactions in DNA are weak.

Entropy-driven collective interactions in DNA brushes on a biochip