Effect of Sonication Time in a DNA Shearing System Based on Phased-Array FASA Transducers

DNA shearing is crucial for all genetic based biomedical applications. In this paper, we present the effect of sonication time, one of the main parameters of shearing protocol, on DNA shearing using an array of Fresnel Annular Sector Actuator (FASA) piezoelectric transducers. Four 90° FASA piezoelectric transducers are arranged in a circular array to generate acoustic waves with unique effects, in particular, vortexing and converging effects, inside DNA sample. In this paper, we describe the building blocks of proposed DNA shearing system and present results of sonication time-dose shearing experiments performed on two types of DNA - E. Coli lambda DNA and human genomic DNA. In particular, we empirically demonstrate that the length of sheared DNA could be varied from 800 base-pairs to 300 base-pair by increasing the sonication time from 5 mins to 55 mins .