Origami from twisted DNA
The DNA origami technique has been improved
Alexandra Medvedev, Indicator
A team of scientists from Arizona State University and Shanghai Transportation University has created a number of self-assembling DNA structures ranging in size from a micron to a millimeter. The researchers demonstrated a variety of complex structures that can be obtained from DNA. In the future, the technology can be used to create molecular motors, nanodevices and biosensitive sensors. The results of the work are published in the journal Nature Chemistry (Yao et al., Meta-DNA structures).
The predictable nature of base pairs and structural features of DNA allow it to be used as universal building blocks for the creation of complex nanoscale structures and devices.
"An important stage in the development of DNA technologies was the invention of DNA origami. This is a method in which long single–stranded DNA spontaneously folds into certain shapes with the help of hundreds of short auxiliary fragments of the DNA chain," says the project leader, Professor Hao Yan of Shanghai University of Transport. "However, it was extremely difficult to assemble a large–sized structure, until recently this limited the use of DNA origami. The structures that we have managed to create have the width of a human hair, which is a thousand times larger than the original DNA nanostructures."
During the experiments, scientists have developed a new method that made it possible to self-assemble DNA structures ranging in size from micrometer to millimeter, called meta-DNA (nanostructures of six helical DNA–VM bundles). Researchers have demonstrated that large structures can be created on the same principle that individual DNA molecules are assembled. Thus, scientists managed to obtain double helices of meta-DNA with a programmed orientation and the size of the coil. Using blocks of meta-DNA, they created a series of structures of various sizes and shapes, including 3D polyhedra and various 2D and 3D lattices, tetrahedra, octahedra and prisms.
In the future, meta-DNA can also be used to create much more complex circuits, molecular motors and nanodevices, and in addition, find applications in biosensitive sensors and molecular computing.
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