Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Synthesis from DNA of a molecule with the connectivity of a cube

Nature volume 350, pages 631–633 (1991)Cite this article

Abstract

A PRINCIPAL goal of biotechnology is the assembly of novel biomaterials for analytical, industrial and therapeutic purposes. The advent of stable immobile nucleic acid branched junctions1–4 makes DNA a good candidate for building frameworks to which proteins or other functional molecules can be attached and thereby juxtaposed5–7. The addition of single-stranded 'sticky' ends8 to branched DNA molecules converts them into macromolecular valence clusters that can be ligated together1. The edges of these frameworks are double-helical DNA, and the vertices correspond to the branch points of junctions. Here, we report the construction from DNA of a covalently closed cube-like molecular complex containing twelve equal-length double-helical edges arranged about eight vertices. Each of the six 'faces' of the object is a single-stranded cyclic molecule, doubly catenated to four neighbouring strands, and each vertex is connected by an edge to three others. Each edge contains a unique restriction site for analytical purposes. This is the first construction of a closed polyhedral object from DNA.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. Seeman, N. C. J. theor. Biol. 99, 237–247 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Seeman, N. C. & Kallenbach, N. R. Biophys J. 44, 201–209 (1983).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kallenbach, N. R., Ma, R.-I. & Seeman, N. C. Nature 305, 829–831 (1983).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Seeman, N. C. J. Biomol. Str. Dyns 3, 11–34 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Robinson, B. H. & Seeman, N. C. Prot. Engn. 1, 295–300 (1987).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hopfield, J. J., Onuchic, J. N. & Beratan, D. N. Science 241, 817–820 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Chen, J.-H., Kallenbach, N. R. & Seeman, N. C. J. Am. chem. Soc. 111, 6402–6407 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Cohen, S. N., Chang, A. C. Y., Boyer, H. W. & Helling, R. B. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70, 3240–3244 (1973).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Seeman, N. C. J. biomol. Str. Dyns 8, 573–581 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Seeman, N. C. J. biomol. Str Dyns 5, 997–1004 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Wang, J. C. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 76, 200–203 (1979).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Rhodes, D. & Klug, A. Nature 286, 573–578 (1980).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Williams, R. The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure (Dover, New York, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Wells, A. F. Three-dimensional Nets and Polyhedra (Wiley, New York, 1977).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Caruthers, M. H. in Chemical and Enzymatic Synthesis of Gene Fragments (eds Gassen, H. G. & Lang, A.) 71–79 (Verlag Chemie, Weinheim, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York, 10003, USA

    Junghuei Chen & Nadrian C. Seeman

Authors
  1. Junghuei Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nadrian C. Seeman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chen, J., Seeman, N. Synthesis from DNA of a molecule with the connectivity of a cube. Nature 350, 631–633 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/350631a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/350631a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing