Efficiency of genomic DNA extraction dependent on the size of magnetic nanoclusters

Abstract

We report the efficiency of genomic DNA extraction as a function of particle size and quantity. For DNA extraction, we synthesized magnetic nanoclusters of various sizes and coated the surface of these magnetic nanoclusters with meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid. We showed that the nanoclusters had a tight particle size distribution and high crystallinity. Furthermore, we observed that the three types of magnetic nanoclusters studied exhibited ferrimagnetic behavior and that larger nanoclusters showed larger saturation magnetization values. The resultant efficiency of DNA extraction is inversely proportional to particle size in the range of nanoclusters tested, due to the fact that the surface-to-volume ratio decreases as particle size increases.

Comparative study of three magnetic nano-particles (FeSO4, FeSO4/SiO2, FeSO4/SiO2/TiO2) in plasmid DNA extraction

“…3). It can be seen that both the the surface-to-volume ratio reduces as particle size increases [19]. Furthermore, the purity of plasmid DNA (A260/A280) extracted by SiO 2 /TiO 2 coated nano-particles was higher than the naked Fe 3 O 4 particle ( Table 1).…”