Fig. 1. Agarose gel retardation assay to assess the CRISPR-C7 plasmid DNA complexation by the HPAE-EB polymer.

The cationic HPAE-EB polymer exhibits significant DNA condensation ability and can retard the movement of anionic DNA through the agarose gel at polymer:DNA w/w ratios ranging from 5:1 to 30:1. At w/w ratios below 5:1, incomplete retarding of DNA is evident as some DNA has migrated down through the gel, indicating insufficient complexation. Naked CRISPR-C7 plasmid alone (without polymer) was used as the control for this experiment. Data are representative of three independent experiments with each w/w ratio assessed in duplicate (n = 3).