Multiple liquid crystal phases of DNA at high concentrations

DNA packaging in vivo is very tight, with volume concentrations approaching 70% w/v in sperm heads, virus capsids and bacterial nucleoids1–3. The packaging mechanisms adopted may be related to the natural tendency of semi-rigid polymers to form liquid crystalline phases in concentrated solutions4–8. We find that DNA forms at least three distinct liquid crystalline phases at concentrations comparable to those in vivo, with phase transitions occurring over relatively narrow ranges of DNA concentration. A weakly birefringent, dynamic, 'precholesteric' mesophase with microscopic textures intermediate between those of a nematic and a true cholesteric phase forms at the lowest concentrations required for phase separation. At slightly higher DNA concentrations, a second mesophase forms which is a strongly birefringent, well-ordered cholesteric phase with a concentration-dependent pitch varying from 2 to lOμm. At the highest DNA concentrations, a phase forms which is two-dimensionally ordered and resembles smectic phases of thermotropic liquid crystals observed with small molecules.