Abstract
Molecular self-assembly with scaffolded DNA origami enables building custom-shaped nanometer-scale objects with molecular weights in the megadalton regime. Here we provide a practical guide for design and assembly of scaffolded DNA origami objects. We also introduce a computational tool for predicting the structure of DNA origami objects and provide information on the conditions under which DNA origami objects can be expected to maintain their structure.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
DNA-origami-directed virus capsid polymorphism
Nature Nanotechnology Open Access 17 July 2023
-
Structure and dynamics of an archetypal DNA nanoarchitecture revealed via cryo-EM and molecular dynamics simulations
Nature Communications Open Access 19 June 2023
-
Fabricating higher-order functional DNA origami structures to reveal biological processes at multiple scales
NPG Asia Materials Open Access 21 April 2023
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout






References
Rothemund, P.W.K. Folding DNA to create nanoscale shapes and patterns. Nature 440, 297–302 (2006).
Lulu, Q. et al. Analogic China map constructed by DNA. Chin. Sci. Bull. 51, 2973–2976 (2006).
Douglas, S.M., Chou, J.J. & Shih, W.M. DNA-nanotube-induced alignment of membrane proteins for NMR structure determination. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 6644–6648 (2007).
Andersen, E.S. et al. DNA origami design of dolphin-shaped structures with flexible tails. ACS Nano 2, 1213–1218 (2008).
Ke, Y. et al. Scaffolded DNA origami of a DNA tetrahedron molecular container. Nano Lett. 9, 2445–2447 (2009).
Andersen, E.S. et al. Self-assembly of a nanoscale DNA box with a controllable lid. Nature 459, 73–76 (2009).
Douglas, S.M. et al. Self-assembly of DNA into nanoscale three-dimensional shapes. Nature 459, 414–418 (2009).
Dietz, H., Douglas, S.M. & Shih, W.M. Folding DNA into twisted and curved nanoscale shapes. Science 325, 725–730 (2009).
Douglas, S.M. et al. Rapid prototyping of 3D DNA-origami shapes with caDNAno. Nucleic Acids Res. 37, 5001–5006 (2009).
Ke, Y. et al. Multi-layer DNA origami packed on a square lattice. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 15903–15908 (2009).
Pound, E., Ashton, J.R., Becerril, H.A. & Woolley, A.T. Polymerase chain reaction based scaffold preparation for the production of thin, branched DNA origami nanostructures of arbitrary sizes. Nano Lett. 9, 4302–4305 (2009).
Endo, M., Hidaka, K., Kato, T., Namba, K. & Sugiyama, H. DNA prism structures constructed by folding of multiple rectangular arms. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 15570–15571 (2009).
Kuzuya, A. & Komiyama, M. Design and construction of a box-shaped 3D-DNA origami. Chem. Commun. (Camb.) 28, 4182–4184 (2009).
Endo, M., Katsuda, Y., Hidaka, K. & Sugiyama, H. Regulation of DNA methylation using different tensions of double strands constructed in a defined DNA nanostructure. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 1592–1597 (2010).
Endo, M., Sugita, T., Katsuda, Y., Hidaka, K. & Sugiyama, H. Programmed-assembly system using DNA jigsaw pieces. Chem. Eur. J. 16, 5362–5368 (2010).
Liedl, T., Högberg, B., Tytell, J., Ingber, D.E. & Shih, W.M. Self-assembly of three-dimensional prestressed tensegrity structures from DNA. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 520–524 (2010).
Han, D., Pal, S., Liu, Y. & Yan, H. Folding and cutting DNA into reconfigurable topological nanostructures. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 712–717 (2010).
Liu, W., Zhong, H., Wang, R. & Seeman, N.C. Crystalline two-dimensional DNA-origami arrays. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn. Engl. 50, 264–267 (2010).
Saccà, B. et al. Orthogonal protein decoration of DNA origami. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn. Engl. 49, 9378–9383 (2010).
Shih, W.M. & Lin, C. Knitting complex weaves with DNA origami. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 20, 276–282 (2010).
Nangreave, J., Han, D. & Yan, H. DNA origami: a history and current perspective. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 14, 608–615 (2010).
Kershner, R.J. et al. Placement and orientation of individual DNA shapes on lithographically patterned surfaces. Nat. Nanotechnol. 4, 557–561 (2009).
Sharma, J. et al. Toward reliable gold nanoparticle patterning on self-assembled DNA nanoscaffolds. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130, 7820–7821 (2008).
Stearns, L.A. et al. Template-directed nucleation and growth of inorganic nanoparticles on DNA scaffolds. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn. Engl. 48, 8494–8496 (2009).
Kuzyk, A., Laitinen, K.T. & Törmä, P. DNA origami as a nanoscale template for protein assembly. Nanotechnology 20, 235305 (2009).
Shen, W., Zhong, H., Neff, D. & Norton, M.L. NTA directed protein nanopatterning on DNA Origami nanoconstructs. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 6660–6661 (2009).
Kuzuya, A. et al. Precisely programmed and robust 2D streptavidin nanoarrays by using periodical nanometer-scale wells embedded in DNA origami assembly. Chembiochem 10, 1811–1815 (2009).
Bui, H. et al. Programmable periodicity of Quantum Dot arrays with DNA origami nanotubes. Nano Lett. 10, 3367–3372 (2010).
Pal, S., Deng, S., Ding, B., Yan, H. & Liu, Y. DNA-origami-directed self-assembly of discrete silver-nanoparticle architectures. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn. Engl. 15, 2700–2704 (2010).
Hung, A.M. et al. Large-area spatially ordered arrays of gold nanoparticles directed by lithographically confined DNA origami. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 121–126 (2010).
Steinhauer, C., Jungmann, R., Sobey, T.L., Simmel, F.C. & Tinnefeld, P. DNA origami as a nanoscopic ruler for super-resolution microscopy. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn. Engl. 48, 8870–8873 (2009).
Voigt, N.V. et al. Single-molecule chemical reactions on DNA origami. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 200–203 (2010).
Maune, H.T. et al. Self-assembly of carbon nanotubes into two-dimensional geometries using DNA origami templates. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 61–66 (2009).
Seeman, N.C. Nucleic acid junctions and lattices. J. Theor. Biol. 99, 237–247 (1982).
Fu, T.J. & Seeman, N.C. DNA double-crossover molecules. Biochemistry 32, 3211–3220 (1993).
Seeman, N.C. Nanomaterials based on DNA. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 79, 65–87 (2010).
Drew, H.R. et al. Structure of a B-DNA dodecamer: conformation and dynamics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78, 2179–2183 (1981).
Rothemund, P.W.K. et al. Design and characterization of programmable DNA nanotubes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 16344–16352 (2004).
Gore, J. et al. DNA overwinds when stretched. Nature 442, 836–839 (2006).
Bathe, K.J. Finite Element Procedures (Prentice Hall, 1996).
Pettersen, E.F. et al. UCSF Chimera—a visualization system for exploratory research and analysis. J. Comput. Chem. 25, 1605–1612 (2004).
Zuker, M. Mfold web server for nucleic acid folding and hybridization prediction. Nucleic Acids Res. 31, 3406–3415 (2003).
Kunitz, M. Crystalline desoxyribonuclease; isolation and general properties; spectrophotometric method for the measurement of desoxyribonuclease activity. J. Gen. Physiol. 33, 349–362 (1950).
White, M.F., Giraud-Panis, M.J., Pöhler, J.R. & Lilley, D.M. Recognition and manipulation of branched DNA structure by junction-resolving enzymes. J. Mol. Biol. 269, 647–664 (1997).
Kerr, C. & Sadowski, P.D. Gene 6 exonuclease of bacteriophage T7. II. Mechanism of the reaction. J. Biol. Chem. 247, 311–318 (1972).
Little, J.W. Lambda exonuclease. Gene Amplif. Anal. 2, 135–145 (1981).
Lehman, I.R. & Nussbaum, A.L. The deoxyribonucleases of Escherischia coli. V. On the the specificity of exonuclease I (phosphodiesterase). J. Biol. Chem. 239, 2628–2636 (1964).
Morgan, R.D. Mse I, a unique restriction endonuclease from Micrococcus species which recognizes 5′ T decreases TAA 3′. Nucleic Acids Res. 16, 3104 (1988).
Högberg, B., Liedl, T. & Shih, W.M. Folding DNA origami from a double-stranded source of scaffold. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 9, 4302–4305 (2009).
Jungmann, R., Liedl, T., Sobey, T.L., Shih, W.M. & Simmel, F.C. Isothermal assembly of DNA origami structures using denaturing agents. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130, 10062–10063 (2008).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Cluster for Integrated Protein Science Munich and a Hans-Fischer tenure track grant from Technische Universität München Institute for Advanced Study to H.D., an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship to C.E.C. and a stipend from the Technische Universität München graduate school “Materials at Complex Interfaces” (CompInt) to F.K. Cluster for Integrated Protein Science Munich and Technische Universität München Institute for Advanced Study are funded by the German Excellence Initiative, CompInt is funded by the Elite Network of the state of Bavaria. M.B. and D.K. are supported by Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty start-up funds and a Samuel A. Goldblith Career Development Professorship awarded to M.B. We thank J. Altschuler and G. McGill for implementing the CanDo website, S. Douglas for discussions on caDNAno details, and P. Rothemund for contributing the AFM imaging protocol and for helpful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
A patent has been filed on behalf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dana Farber Cancer Institute by Ditthavong Mori & Steiner, P.C. listing M.B., D.K. and H.D. as co-inventors of CanDo.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Text and Figures
Supplementary Figures 1–5, Supplementary Protocols 1–5, Supplementary Notes 1–2, Supplementary Methods (PDF 5185 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Castro, C., Kilchherr, F., Kim, DN. et al. A primer to scaffolded DNA origami. Nat Methods 8, 221–229 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1570
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1570
This article is cited by
-
Fabricating higher-order functional DNA origami structures to reveal biological processes at multiple scales
NPG Asia Materials (2023)
-
Harnessing a paper-folding mechanism for reconfigurable DNA origami
Nature (2023)
-
Structure and dynamics of an archetypal DNA nanoarchitecture revealed via cryo-EM and molecular dynamics simulations
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Digital nanoreactors to control absolute stoichiometry and spatiotemporal behavior of DNA receptors within lipid bilayers
Nature Communications (2023)
-
DNA-origami-directed virus capsid polymorphism
Nature Nanotechnology (2023)