Universal pH‐Responsive and Metal‐Ion‐Free Self‐Assembly of DNA Nanostructures
Abstract
pH‐responsiveness has been widely pursued in dynamic DNA nanotechnology, owing to its potential in biosensing, controlled release, and nanomachinery. pH‐triggering systems mostly depend on specific designs of DNA sequences. However, sequence‐independent regulation could provide a more general tool to achieve pH‐responsive DNA assembly, which has yet to be developed. Herein, we propose a mechanism for dynamic DNA assembly by utilizing ethylenediamine (EN) as a reversibly chargeable (via protonation) molecule to overcome electrostatic repulsions. This strategy provides a universal pH‐responsivity for DNA assembly since the regulation originates from externally co‐existing EN rather than specific DNA sequences. Furthermore, it endows structural DNA nanotechnology with the benefits of a metal‐ion‐free environment including nuclease resistance. The concept could in principle be expanded to other organic molecules which may bring unique controls to dynamic DNA assembly.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 08, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/ange.201804054
Entities
People
- Bang Wang
- Chengde Mao
- Jianbo He
- Lei Song
- Yongfei Li
- Yulin Li
- Zhaoxiang Deng
Organizations
- Hefei University of Technology
- Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- Purdue University
- University of Science and Technology of China