Rational-designed DNA Nanostructures And Crystals

 DNA origami is a powerful method to construct DNA nanostructures. It requires long, single-stranded DNAs. The preparation of such long DNA strands is often quite tedious and has a limited production yield. In contrast, duplex DNAs can be easily prepared via enzymatic reactions in large quantities. Thus, we ask a question: can we design DNA nanostructures in such a way that the two complementary strands can simultaneously fold into the designed structures in the same solution instead of hybridizing with each other to form a DNA duplex? By engineering DNA interaction kinetics, herein, we are able to provide multiple examples to concretely demonstrate a positive answer to this question. The resulting DNA nanostructures have been thoroughly characterized by electrophoresis and atomic force microscopy imaging. The reported strategy is compatible with the DNA cloning method; thus, would provide a convenient way for large-scale production of the designed DNA nanostructures.