Figure 2.

Design, synthesis, and characterization of PS-modified HP probes. (a) Schematic of a hydrogel-tethered DNA hairpin probe and its response to integrin forces. (b) Synthetic scheme for PS-modified DNA HP probes. The red color indicates the self-complementary stem, while the green color indicates the polyT loop. All nucleobases were linked by the PS backbone. (c) Fluorescence thermal melting curves of DNA HP (22% GC, blue) and PS-modified DNA HP (22% GC, black) in 1× PBS. (d) Table of the calculated T_m, ΔG, and F_1/2 for DNA HP and PS DNA HP (22% GC) at 37 °C in PBS buffer. The error values represent the standard deviation from three independent melts.