Folding DNA into Twisted and Curved Nanoscale Shapes

Abstract

Stressful Self-Assembly: One way to control shape during the assembly of an object is to design in stresses that cause a planned amount of deformation. Dietz et al. (p. 725 ; see the Perspective by Liu and Yan ) designed DNA helix bundles, arranged in honeycomb lattices, in which some of the helices have insertions or deletions relative to the other helices in the bundles. The stresses help the bundles assemble into objects on the scale of tens of nanometers. Both the direction and degree of bending could be controlled, and curvatures as tight as 6 nanometers achieved. Complex shapes, such as square-toothed gears, could be created by combining multiple curved elements.