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An autonomous polymerization motor powered by DNA hybridization

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 490–494 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

We present a synthetic molecular motor capable of autonomous nanoscale transport in solution. Inspired by bacterial pathogens such as Rickettsia rickettsii, which locomote by inducing the polymerization of the protein actin at their surfaces to form ‘comet tails’1, the motor operates by polymerizing a double-helical DNA tail2. DNA strands are propelled processively at the living end of the growing polymers, demonstrating autonomous locomotion powered by the free energy of DNA hybridization.

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Figure 1: Mechanism schematic for a DNA-based Rickettsia mimic.
Figure 2: Fluorescent native agarose gel scanned at two wavelengths.
Figure 3: Fluorescence capture experiment demonstrating that during polymerization, each Rickettsia strand remains on the same polymer as its original anchor strand partner.
Figure 4: Fluorescence quenching experiment demonstrating that Rickettsia strands are carried at the live end of polymers.
Figure 5: Direct visualization of Rickettsia systems by means of atomic force microscopy.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. S. Bois for helpful discussions, J. Padilla for performing the early sequence design calculations, J. N. Zadeh for the use of unpublished multi-objective sequence design software, J. M. Schaeffer for the use of unpublished multi-stranded kinetics simulation software and R. Barish and R. Hariadi for guidance on the use of DNA origamis for patterning polymerization reactions. This work was funded by NSF-CCF-CAREER-0448835, NSF-CHE-0533064 (Center for Molecular Cybernetics), NSF-CCF-0622254, NSF-DMS-0506468.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Suvir Venkataraman, Robert M. Dirks & Niles A. Pierce

  2. Department of Computer Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Paul W. K. Rothemund & Erik Winfree

  3. Department of Computation & Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Paul W. K. Rothemund & Erik Winfree

  4. Department of Applied & Computational Mathematics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Niles A. Pierce

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  1. Suvir Venkataraman
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Correspondence to Niles A. Pierce.

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Venkataraman, S., Dirks, R., Rothemund, P. et al. An autonomous polymerization motor powered by DNA hybridization. Nature Nanotech 2, 490–494 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.225

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