State-transition of DNA nanomachines based on photoniccontrol

摘要

DNA is good material for generating nanoscale-creations including nano-structures and nano-machines becausethe DNA is capable of making specific bonds depending on the sequences. The capability is helpful for program-ming behavior of the creations. Yurke et al. demonstrated a nanomachine called DNA tweezers [B. Yurke etal., Nature, 406, pp. 605 (2000).], which is closed by adding fuel-DNA and opened by adding another strandof DNA. This paper describes on state-transition of DNA nanomachines using photonic signals and shows theprimary results of experiments. The use of photonic signal offers a method for parallel and local operation ofDNA nanomachines depending on information from the outside of the solution. This idea is applicable to con-trol nano-world based on photonics techniques. Azobenzene-tethered DNA is used for photonic operation. Theform of the azobenzene is converted to cis-form under ultraviolet irradiation and trans-form under visible-lightirradiation, and our scheme is based on the dependence of the binding strength of the azobenzene-tethered DNAand its complementary DNA on the form of the azobenzene[H. Asanuma et al., Nature Protocols, 2, pp. 203(2007).] . Two types of DNA nanomachines controlled through photonic signals were investigated. One is astepwise-growth type and the other is a self-contained type. The experimental results show that the state of theDNA nanomachine is changed after ultraviolet irradiation and visible-light irradiation. We succeeded to operatethe self-contained type of DNA nanomachine no less than ten cycles.