DNA nanostructures articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cytoskeletons are essential components of cells that perform a variety of tasks, and artificial cytoskeletons that perform these functions are required for the bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells. Now, a multi-functional cytoskeleton mimic has been engineered from DNA, consisting of confined DNA filaments that are capable of reversible self-assembly and transport of gold nanoparticles and vesicular cargo.

    • Pengfei Zhan
    • , Kevin Jahnke
    •  & Kerstin Göpfrich

  • Article |

    Stimuli-responsive control of drug activation can mitigate issues caused by poor drug selectivity. Now, it has been shown that mechanical force—induced by ultrasound—can be used to activate drugs in three different systems. This approach has enabled the activation of antibiotics or a cytotoxic anticancer agent from synthetic polymers, polyaptamers and nanoparticle assemblies.

    • Shuaidong Huo
    • , Pengkun Zhao
    •  & Andreas Herrmann

  • Article |

    A six-helix bundle DNA structure called meta-DNA has now been assembled and shown to possess some structural properties similar to those of single-stranded DNA. Two meta-DNAs containing complementary ‘meta-base pairs’ are shown to form double helices. Meta-DNA building blocks are also used to construct a series of DNA architectures and to perform a hierarchical strand-displacement reaction.

    • Guangbao Yao
    • , Fei Zhang
    •  & Hao Yan

  • Article |

    Multivalent binding is a common strategy to enhance the interactions between weak binding partners. Now, following this principle, DNA origami scaffolds have been used to arrange DNA aptamers into specific geometries and to optimize linker spacings and flexibilities, which results in artificial binding sites with very high affinities for their corresponding ligands.

    • Ali Aghebat Rafat
    • , Sandra Sagredo
    •  & Friedrich C. Simmel

  • Article |

    DNA is capable of self-assembling into a wide range of user-defined structures and so can be used as a scaffold to arrange binding motifs with nanometre precision. Now, DNA has been used to accurately display aptamers that fit the repeated epitope pattern of a dengue viral antigen to produce a nanostructure that can be a potent viral inhibitor or a fluorescent sensor.

    • Paul S. Kwon
    • , Shaokang Ren
    •  & Xing Wang

  • News & Views |

    In biological systems, order typically emerges from out-of-equilibrium molecular processes that control both static patterns and dynamic changes. Now, the self-regulating assembly and disassembly of a synthetic system has been achieved on the micrometre scale, by coupling the growth of a DNA nanotube to a biochemical oscillator.

    • Tim Liedl

  • Article |

    Nucleic acid nanotechnology offers a promising route towards the design and synthesis of reconfigurable biomolecular materials. Now, the combination of dynamic and structural DNA nanotechnology has enabled the dynamic control of the assembly and disassembly of DNA nanotubes. The process involves minimal synthetic gene systems, including an autonomous molecular oscillator.

    • Leopold N. Green
    • , Hari K. K. Subramanian
    •  & Elisa Franco

  • Article |

    Primer exchange reaction (PER) cascades have now been used to grow nascent single-stranded DNA with user-specified sequences following prescribed reaction pathways. PER synthesis occurs in a programmable, autonomous, in situ and environmentally responsive fashion, providing a platform for engineering molecular circuits and devices with a wide range of sensing, monitoring, recording, signal processing and actuation capabilities.

    • Jocelyn Y. Kishi
    • , Thomas E. Schaus
    •  & Peng Yin

  • News & Views |

    DNA double helical structures are supramolecular assemblies that are typically held together by classical Watson–Crick pairing. Now, nucleotide chelation of silver ions supports an extended silver–DNA hybrid duplex featuring an uninterrupted silver array.

    • Pascal Auffinger
    •  & Eric Ennifar

  • Article |

    A metallo–DNA hybrid nanowire composed only of silver-mediated base pairs has been prepared and its crystal structure resolved by X-ray diffraction. The nanowire, which is 2 nm wide and whose length reaches the μm to mm scale, holds silver ions into uninterrupted one-dimensional arrays along the DNA helical axis.

    • Jiro Kondo
    • , Yoshinari Tada
    •  & Yoshiyuki Tanaka

  • Article |

    Charge transfer in DNA is of fundamental interest in chemistry and biochemistry and has possible applications in nano-electronics. Now it has been shown, through a combined experimental and theoretical study, that the migration of positive charges through low-lying orbitals of nucleobases (deep-hole transfer) leads to charge transfer that is faster than previously considered transport regimes.

    • Nicolas Renaud
    • , Michelle A. Harris
    •  & Ferdinand C. Grozema

  • Article |

    The synthesis of topologically non-trivial compounds requires the manipulation of molecular recognition with an extraordinarily high level of control. Now, DNA four-way junctions have been configured to construct synthetic DNA knots and links, which can then be used to investigate important DNA-processing enzymes.

    • Di Liu
    • , Gang Chen
    •  & Yossi Weizmann

  • Article |

    The existence (or not) of electronic coherence in homopolymers is dependent on a balance between monomer–monomer interactions and environmental heterogeneity. Now, by understanding how even–odd orbital symmetry influences coherence and produces resistance oscillations as a function of distance—it is shown that DNA sequences can be designed to support coherent charge transport.

    • Chaoren Liu
    • , Limin Xiang
    •  & Nongjian Tao

  • Article |

    Cyanuric acid, a small molecule with three thymine-like faces, reprogrammes the assembly of unmodified poly(adenine) into long fibres with a unique internal structure. The association of adenine and cyanuric acid units into a hexameric rosette motif brings together poly(adenine) triplexes with subsequent cooperative polymerization.

    • Nicole Avakyan
    • , Andrea A. Greschner
    •  & Hanadi F. Sleiman

  • Article |

    DNA nanotubes are attractive building blocks for the assembly of complex arrays. An efficient solid-state synthesis for producing surface-grafted, robust nanotubes has now been devised. Rungs are incorporated in a stepwise manner so that each one is addressable. Using fluorescent tags, the nanotube growth was visualized at the single-molecule level.

    • Amani A. Hariri
    • , Graham D. Hamblin
    •  & Gonzalo Cosa

  • News & Views |

    DNA self-assembly has previously been used to create channel-like structures that can penetrate through lipid bilayer membranes. However, such assemblies have not been shown to cause cell death before. Now a DNA nanopore has been shown to exert a cytotoxic effect when administered to cells.

    • Swati Krishnan
    •  & Friedrich C. Simmel

  • Article |

    The programmed assembly of single DNA strands into bricks and ultimately micrometre-sized two-dimensional crystals with prescribed depths up to 80 nm is described. These crystals display intricate three-dimensional features including continuous or discontinuous cavities and channels with nanometre precision, and can pack DNA helices in parallel or perpendicularly to the plane of the crystals.

    • Yonggang Ke
    • , Luvena L. Ong
    •  & Peng Yin

  • News & Views |

    DNA origami tiles with complementary shapes have been designed and assembled into large nanostructures through the geometrically controlled stacking of their helices.

    • Andrew J. Turberfield

  • Article |

    Multiple specific binding interactions have typically been created from DNA using Watson–Crick complementarity. Now, diverse bonds have also been obtained through the geometric arrangement of blunt-end stacking interactions. Two approaches to specific interactions — binary and shape coding — are demonstrated. The thermodynamics and binding rules of the resulting ‘stacking bonds’ are explored.

    • Sungwook Woo
    •  & Paul W. K. Rothemund

  • News & Views |

    Controlled energy-transfer on a molecular scale is a goal in many areas of science, from artificial photosynthesis to molecular electronics. Now, DNA origami has been used to direct the transfer of energy from an excited input dye down one of two paths by precisely arranging a mediator dye.

    • Bo Albinsson

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