Seeded growth of adaptive tiles on DNA origami

Abstract

Structural DNA nanotechnology has been applied to construct complex static and dynamic DNA structures. Seeded growth, intended to regulate the crucial nucleation step, has been used to control the assembly of DNA tiles. However, most of the seeded growth strategies were applied to fixed DNA tiles, whereas the seeded growth on dynamic DNA tiles remains unreported. Here, we propose a seeded growth strategy in which dynamic tiles adaptively change their shapes to match the architecture of a DNA origami seed. Furthermore, when more adaptive DNA tiles assemble on a reconfigurable DNA origami domino array (DODA) seed, the conformation of DODA seeds is reversibly affected by the spontaneous reconfiguration of adaptive tiles. The adaptive seeded growth provides a mechanism for the construction of complex DNA nanomachines and may offer a general and adaptable method for the advancement of responsive materials, with active, autonomous, and adaptive spatiotemporal control properties. • The shapes of adaptive tiles can change to match “red” or “blue” DNA origami seed • The adaptive tiles can transform to “blue” conformation when assembling on fixed seed • The adaptive tile can trigger the deformation of reconfigurable seed • A molecular “tug-of-war” occurs when adaptive tile assembling on reconfigurable seed Liu et al. develop a seeded growth strategy whereby adaptive DNA tiles can adaptively assemble on DNA origami seeds, with their shapes changing simultaneously. When the adaptive tiles assemble on reconfigurable seeds, the seeds change into the other conformation, with the transformation triggered by the growing tile lattice.