Phospholipid-nucleic acid recognition: developing an immobilized liposome chromatography for DNA separation and analysis.

The basic physicochemical principles that determine nucleic acid-phospholipid recognition and self-assembly are presented, focusing on their use as promising stationary phases for separation and analyses of nucleic acids with various structures and properties. The utilization of immobilized liposome chromatography was designed as an aqueous, two-phase system for further studies of sequence- and topology-specific and non-specific nucleic acid binding features of phospholipids in the presence of cationic co-solutes. Such covalently attached liposomes are evaluated for their stability, binding affinities with nucleic acids and plasmids, as well as their subsequent compaction, in terms of their relevance to chromatographic applications.