DNA-assembled nanoarchitectures with multiple components in regulated and coordinated motion

Pengfei Zhan, Maximilian J. Urban, Steffen Both, Xiaoyang Duan, Anton Kuzyk, Thomas Weiss, Na Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)
116 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Coordinating functional parts to operate in concert is essential for machinery. In gear trains, meshed gears are compactly interlocked, working together to impose rotation or translation. In photosynthetic systems, a variety of biological entities in the thylakoid membrane interact with each other, converting light energy into chemical energy. However, coordinating individual parts to carry out regulated and coordinated motion within an artificial nanoarchitecture poses challenges, owing to the requisite control on the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate DNA-directed nanosystems, which comprise hierarchically-assembled DNA origami filaments, fluorophores, and gold nanocrystals. These individual building blocks can execute independent, synchronous, or joint motion upon external inputs. These are optically monitored in situ using fluorescence spectroscopy, taking advantage of the sensitive distance-dependent interactions between the gold nanocrystals and fluorophores positioned on the DNA origami. Our work leverages the complexity of DNA-based artificial nanosystems with tailored dynamic functionality, representing a viable route towards technomimetic nanomachinery.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbereaax6023
JournalScience Advances
Volume5
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2019
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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