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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Mar 22.
Published in final edited form as: J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2005 Dec;5(12):1964–1982. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2005.446

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showing pRNA monomers (A), dimers (B), trimers (C), and arrays (D) of pRNA. The three insets at the left of each panel contain images with higher magnification, as indicated by the size of the frame. The pRNA monomers folded into a checkmark shape, dimers displayed a rod shape, trimer exhibited triangle shape, and arrays displayed as bundles. Formation of dimers requires Mg2+, while the sample on mica was briefly rinsed with water before freezing for cryo-AFM, which resulted in some dissociation of dimers or trimers even when the pRNA was already adsorbed to the activated mica surface. The color within each image reflects the thickness and height of the molecule. The brighter or whiter, the color, the thicker or taller the molecule; the darker the image, the thinner the molecule. Reprinted with permission from [43], D. Shu et al., Nano Lett. 4, 1717 (2004). © 2004, American Chemical Society.