Crystalline Two-Dimensional DNA-Origami Arrays

摘要

Nanotechnology aims to organize matter with the highest possible accuracy and control. Such control will lead to nanoelectronics, nanorobotics, programmable chemical synthesis, scaffolded crystals, and nanoscale systems responsive to their environments. Structural DNA nanotechnology is one of the most powerful routes to this goal. It combines robust branched DNA species with the control of affinity and structure inherent in the programmability of sticky ends. The successes of structural DNA nanotechnology include the formation of objects 2D crystals, 3D crystals, nano-mechanical devices, and various combinations of these species. DNA origami is arguably the most effective way of producing a large addressable area on a 2D DNA surface. This method entails the combination of a long single strand (typically the single-stranded form of the filamentous bacteriophage M13,7249 nucleotides) with about 250 staple strands to define the shape and patterning of the structure. With a pixelation estimated at about 6 nm,it is possible, to build patterns with about 100 addressable points within a definable shape in an area of about 10000 nm~2. Many investigators have sought unsuccessfully to increase the useful size of 2D origami units by forming crystals of individual origami tiles. Herein, we report the 2D crystallization of origami tiles to yield a 2D array with edge dimensions of 2-3 μum. This size is likely to be large enough to connect bottom-up methods of patterning with top-down approaches.