Post‐Assembly Stabilization of Rationally Designed DNA Crystals
Abstract
This manuscript reports an effort to stabilize self‐assembled DNA crystals. Owing to their weak inter‐unit cohesion, self‐assembled DNA crystals are fragile, which limits the potential applications of such crystals. To overcome this problem, another molecule was introduced, which binds to the cohesive sites and stabilizes the inter‐unit interactions. The extra interactions greatly improve the stability of the DNA crystals. The original DNA crystals are only stable in solutions of high ionic strength (e.g., ≥1.2 M (NH4)2SO4); in contrast, the stabilized crystals can be stable at ionic strengths as low as that of a 0.02 M solution of (NH4)2SO4. The current strategy is expected to represent a general approach for increasing the stability of self‐assembled DNA nanostructures for potential applications, for example, as structural scaffolds and molecular sieves.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1002/anie.201503610
Entities
People
- Arun Richard Chandrasekaran
- Chengde Mao
- Jiemin Zhao
- Li Qian
- Nadrian C. Seeman
- Ruojie Sha
- Xiang Li
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Department of Energy