Boosted Productivity in Single-Tile-Based DNA Polyhedra Assembly by Simple Cation Replacement

Kaixuan Zhou; Zhichao Mei; Yunxiang Lei; Zhen Guan; Chengde Mao; Yulin Li

doi:10.1002/cbic.202200138

Boosted Productivity in Single-Tile-Based DNA Polyhedra Assembly by Simple Cation Replacement

Chembiochem. 2022 Aug 17;23(16):e202200138. doi: 10.1002/cbic.202200138. Epub 2022 Jun 23.

Authors

Kaixuan Zhou¹, Zhichao Mei¹, Yunxiang Lei¹, Zhen Guan¹, Chengde Mao², Yulin Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Advanced Catalytic Materials and Reaction Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui, 230009, P. R. China.
² Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907, USA.

PMID: 35676202
DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202200138

Abstract

Cations such as divalent magnesium ion (Mg²⁺ ) play an essential role in DNA self-assembly. However, the strong electrostatic shielding effect of Mg²⁺ would be disadvantageous in some situations that require relatively weak interactions to allow a highly reversible error-correcting mechanism in the process of assembly. Herein, by substituting the conventional divalent Mg²⁺ with monovalent sodium ion (Na⁺ ), we have achieved one-pot high-yield assembly of tile-based DNA polyhedra at micromolar concentration of tiles, at least 10 times higher than the DNA concentrations reported previously. This strategy takes advantage of coexisting counterions and is expected to surmount the major obstacle to potential applications of such DNA nanostructures: large-scale production.

Keywords: DNA; DNA nanostructures; DNA nanotechnology; self-assembly.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cations
DNA
Magnesium
Nanostructures*
Nanotechnology*
Nucleic Acid Conformation
Sodium

Substances

Cations
DNA
Sodium
Magnesium