Control of Self-Assembly of DNA Tubules Through Integration of Gold Nanoparticles
Jaswinder Sharma,1,2*
Rahul Chhabra,1,2*
Anchi Cheng,3
Jonathan Brownell,3
Yan Liu,1,2
Hao Yan1,2
The assembly of nanoparticles into three-dimensional (3D) architectures
could allow for greater control of the interactions between
these particles or with molecules. DNA tubes are known to form
through either self-association of multi-helix DNA bundle structures
or closing up of 2D DNA tile lattices. By the attachment of
single-stranded DNA to gold nanoparticles, nanotubes of various
3D architectures can form, ranging in shape from stacked rings
to single spirals, double spirals, and nested spirals. The nanoparticles
are active elements that control the preference for specific
tube conformations through size-dependent steric repulsion effects.
For example, we can control the tube assembly to favor stacked-ring
structures using 10-nanometer gold nanoparticles. Electron tomography
revealed a left-handed chirality in the spiral tubes, double-wall
tube features, and conformational transitions between tubes.
2 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
3 National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hao.yan{at}asu.edu (H.Y.); yan_liu{at}asu.edu (Y.L.)
