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Transfer of molecular recognition information from DNA nanostructures to gold nanoparticles

Nature Chemistry volume 8, pages 162–170 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

DNA nanotechnology offers unparalleled precision and programmability for the bottom-up organization of materials. This approach relies on pre-assembling a DNA scaffold, typically containing hundreds of different strands, and using it to position functional components. A particularly attractive strategy is to employ DNA nanostructures not as permanent scaffolds, but as transient, reusable templates to transfer essential information to other materials. To our knowledge, this approach, akin to top-down lithography, has not been examined. Here we report a molecular printing strategy that chemically transfers a discrete pattern of DNA strands from a three-dimensional DNA structure to a gold nanoparticle. We show that the particles inherit the DNA sequence configuration encoded in the parent template with high fidelity. This provides control over the number of DNA strands and their relative placement, directionality and sequence asymmetry. Importantly, the nanoparticles produced exhibit the site-specific addressability of DNA nanostructures, and are promising components for energy, information and biomedical applications.

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Figure 1: An overview of the template-guided pattern transfer.
Figure 2: Pattern transfer using a cubic scaffold.
Figure 3: Introduction of geometric diversity via the template.
Figure 4: Introduction of sequence asymmetry to the patterning.
Figure 5: Microscopy analysis of the patterned AuNP self-assembly.
Figure 6: Fluorescence investigation of asymmetric patterning.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Centre for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures and the Canada Research Chairs Program for financial support. T.G.W.E. thanks the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for a Drug Development Training Program scholarship. D.B. thanks the NSERC for a Bionano scholarship and C.J.S. thanks the NSERC for a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. H.F.S. is a Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Centre for Self-assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, H3A 0B8, Quebec, Canada

    Thomas G. W. Edwardson, Kai Lin Lau, Danny Bousmail, Christopher J. Serpell & Hanadi F. Sleiman

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  1. Thomas G. W. Edwardson
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Contributions

H.F.S. and T.G.W.E. designed the project. T.G.W.E. primarily contributed to the production of experimental results. K.L.L. carried out the synthesis of gold nanoparticles, TEM analysis, preparation of patterned AuNPs for the fluorescence studies and aided in data interpretation. D.B. carried out all the DLS experiments. C.J.S. synthesized the clip strands TC3-AB, PC4-AB and PC5-AB. All the authors have agreed to all the content of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hanadi F. Sleiman.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Edwardson, T., Lau, K., Bousmail, D. et al. Transfer of molecular recognition information from DNA nanostructures to gold nanoparticles. Nature Chem 8, 162–170 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2420

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