Covalent Conjugation of Carbon Dots with Plasmid and DNA Condensation Thereafter: Realistic Insights into the Condensate Morphology, Energetics, and Photophysics

[Image: see text] The use of carbon quantum dots (CDs) as trackable nanocarriers for plasmid and gene as hybrid DNA condensates has gained momentum, as evident from the significant recent research efforts. However, the in-depth morphology of the condensates, the energetics of the condensation process, and the photophysical aspects of the CD are not well understood and often disregarded. Herein, for the first time, we covalently attached linearized pUC19 with citric acid and cysteamine-derived CD through the reaction of the surface amine groups of CDs with the 5′-phospho-methyl imidazolide derivative of the plasmid to obtain a 1:1 CD-pUC19 covalent conjugate. The CD-pUC19 conjugates were further transformed into DNA condensates with spermine that displayed a toroidal morphology with a diameter of ∼200 nm involving ∼2–5 CD-pUC19 conjugates in a single condensate. While the interaction of pristine CD to spermine was exothermic, the binding of the CD-pUC19 conjugate with spermine was endothermic and primarily entropy-driven. The condensed plasmid displayed severe conformational stress and deviation from the B-form due to the compact packing of the DNA but better transfection ability than the pristine CD. The CDs in the condensates tend to come close to each other at the core that results in their shielding from excitation. However, this does not prevent them from emanating reactive oxygen species on visible light exposure that compromises the decondensation process and cell viability at higher exposure times, calling for utmost caution in establishing them as nonviral transfecting agents universally.