A new twist on DNA origami
Meta-DNA structures transform the DNA nanotechnology world

Date:
September 7, 2020
Source:
Arizona State University
Summary:
A team of scientists has just announced the creation of a new
type of meta-DNA structures that will open up the fields of
optoelectronics (including information storage and encryption)
as well as synthetic biology.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of scientists from ASU and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU)
led by Hao Yan, ASU's Milton Glick Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences, and director of the ASU Biodesign Institute's Center for
Molecular Design and Biomimetics, has just announced the creation
of a new type of meta-DNA structures that will open up the fields of optoelectronics (including information storage and encryption) as well
as synthetic biology.


==========================================================================
This research was published today in Nature Chemistry -- indeed the
meta-DNA self-assembly concept may totally transform the microscopic
world of structural DNA nanotechnology.

It is common knowledge that the predictable nature of Watson-Crick
base-pairing and the structural features of DNA have allowed DNA to be
used as a versatile building block to engineer sophisticated nanoscale structures and devices.

"A milestone in DNA technology was certainly the invention of DNA origami, where a long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is folded into designated
shapes with the help of hundreds of short DNA staple strands," explained
Yan. "However it has been challenging to assemble larger (micron to
millimeter) sized DNA architectures which up until recently has limited
the use of DNA origami." The new micron sized structures are on the
order of the width of a human hair which is 1000 times larger than the
original DNA nanostructures.

Ever since gracing the cover of Science Magazine in 2011 with their
elegant DNA origami nanostructures, Yan and collaborators have been
working tirelessly, capitalizing on inspiration from nature, seeking to
solve complex human problems.

"In this current research we developed a versatile "meta-DNA" (M-DNA)
strategy that allowed various sub-micrometer to micrometer sized DNA
structures to self- assemble in a manner similar to how simple short
DNA strands self-assemble at the nanoscale level," said Yan.



==========================================================================
The group demonstrated that a 6-helix bundle DNA origami nanostructure
in the sub-micrometer scale (meta-DNA) could be used as a magnified
analogue of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and that two meta-DNAs containing complementary "meta-base pairs" could form double helices with programmed handedness and helical pitches.

Using meta-DNA building blocks they have constructed a series
of sub-micrometer to micrometer scale DNA architectures, including meta-multi-arm junctions, 3D polyhedrons, and various 2D/3D lattices. They
also demonstrated a hierarchical strand-displacement reaction on meta-DNA
to transfer the dynamic features of DNA to the meta-DNA.

With the help of assistant professor Petr Sulc (SMS) they used
a coarse-grained computational model of the DNA to simulate the
double-stranded M-DNA structure and to understand the different yields
of left-handed and right-handed structures that were obtained.

Further, by just changing the local flexibility of the individual M-DNA
and their interactions, they were able to build a series of sub-micrometer
or micron-scale DNA structures from 1D to 3D with a wide variety of
geometric shapes, including meta-junctions, meta-double crossover tiles
(M-DX), tetrahedrons, octahedrons, prisms, and six types of closely
packed lattices.

In the future, more complicated circuits, molecular motors, and
nanodevices could be rationally designed using M-DNA and used in
applications related to biosensing and molecular computation. This
research will make the creation of dynamic micron-scale DNA structures,
that are reconfigurable upon stimulation, significantly more feasible.

The authors anticipate that the introduction of this M-DNA strategy
will transform DNA nanotechnology from the nanometer to the microscopic
scale. This will create a range of complex static and dynamic structures
in the sub- micrometer and micron-scale that will enable many new
applications.

For example, these structures may be used as a scaffold for patterning
complex functional components that are larger and more complex than
previously thought possible. This discovery may also lead to more
sophisticated and complex behaviors that mimic cell or cellular
components with a combination of different M-DNA based hierarchical
strand displacement reactions.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Arizona_State_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Guangbao Yao, Fei Zhang, Fei Wang, Tianhuan Peng, Hao Liu, Erik
Poppleton, Petr Sulc, Shuoxing Jiang, Lan Liu, Chen Gong,
Xinxin Jing, Xiaoguo Liu, Lihua Wang, Yan Liu, Chunhai Fan,
Hao Yan. Meta-DNA structures. Nature Chemistry, 2020; DOI:
10.1038/s41557-020-0539-8 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200907112333.htm

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