1 research outputs found
Construction of a Polyhedral DNA 12-Arm Junction for Self-Assembly of Wireframe DNA Lattices
A variety
of different tiles for the construction of DNA lattices
have been developed since the structural DNA nanotechnology field
was born. The majority of these are designed for the realization of
close-packed structures, where DNA helices are arranged in parallel
and tiles are connected through sticky ends. Assembly of such structures
requires the use of cation-rich buffers to minimize repulsion between
parallel helices, which poses limits to the application of DNA nanostructures.
Wireframe structures, on the other hand, are less susceptible to salt
concentration, but the assembly of wireframe lattices is limited by
the availability of tiles and motifs. Herein, we report the construction
of a polyhedral 12-arm junction for the self-assembly of wireframe
DNA lattices. Our approach differs from traditional assembly of DNA
tiles through hybridization of sticky ends. Instead, the assembly
approach presented here uses small polyhedral shapes as connecting
points and branch points of wires in a lattice structure. Using this
design principle and characterization techniques, such as transmission
electron microscopy, single-particle reconstruction, patterning of
gold nanoparticles, dynamic light scattering, UV melting analyses,
and small-angle X-ray scattering among others, we demonstrated formation
of finite 12-way junction structures, as well as 1D and 2D short assemblies,
demonstrating an alternative way of designing polyhedral structures
and lattices