Adhesion of giant unilamellar vesicles on double-end grafted DNA carpets

We have recently shown that the bio-mimetic adhesion of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles on carpets of lambda-phage DNAs, grafted by one end to the substrate, leads to DNA scraping and stapling. As the lipid adhesion patch is built, outward forces stretch the DNA, while adhesion patch formation staples the chains into frozen conformations, trapped between the GUV membrane and the substrate. Analysis of the scraped and stapled DNA conformations provides a wealth of information about the membrane/polymer interactions at play during the formation of a bio-adhesive contact zone. In this paper we report new phenomena revealed by scraping and stapling phenomena associated with the bio-mimetic adhesion of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles on carpets of lambda-phage DNAs that were grafted to the substrate by both ends. In particular, the peculiar shapes of stapled DNA observed in this case, suggest that the membrane exerces not only outward radial forces during patch formation, but is is also able to confine the DNA molecules in the orthoradial direction.