Toward Nano-assembly of Metals Through Engineered DNAs

摘要

Worldwide research into the generation of novel, bioinspired molecular architectures has been growing exponentially for more than a quarter of a century. Motivation in this research field is based on the belief that a "bottom-up" approach from the atomic or molecular level to control or to renew basic building blocks that have been embodied by Nature can lead to an enormous range of possible structures and functions within what are rationally designed molecular structures. The self-assembly hierarchy, which is natural in origin, has long been recognized as a conceptually important, nonbiological approach to the generation of self-assembled, nano-structured molecules or materials, and a number of elegant examples are now known [1]. However, the biorelated aspects of molecular architecture as applied in this way, although full of promise, are not as well developed as various abiological ones. Although biological systems contain only a limited number of fundamental building blocks, such as nucleosides, amino acids, lipids, and carbohydrates, these molecules are chemically diverse and can be polymerized or assembled in an almost infinite number of ways. Further, owing to recent advances in chemical synthesis and biotechnology, these biomolecular building blocks can be arranged so as to produce a whole range of bio-inspired products that has not previously been possible to conceive. In this regard, the incorporation of metal complexes into biomolecules in recognized as being a key motif in the design and synthesis of functionalized biopolymers [2-18].