DNA octahedra: Clonable structures for nanotechnology

12 February 2004



DNA octahedra: Clonable structures for nanotechnology


Spontaneous assembly of DNA into well-defined nanostructures can be exploited to construct miniature devices or direct assembly of material on the submicrometre scale. A key property of DNA, amplification by polymerases, is an added advantage as it facilitates large-scale production and directed evolution of sequences. Until now, three-dimensional DNA objects have not been amenable to cloning as they contain topologies that prevent copying by polymerases. That;s not the case with the nanoscale octahedra whose structure (determined by cryo-electron microscopy) is shown on the cover. This specially designed 1,669-nucleotide DNA molecule, in the presence of five 40-mer oligonucleotides, folds into a regular octahedron with an outer diameter of 22 nm — comparable in size to a small protein-coated virus.


A 1.7-kilobase single-stranded DNA that folds into a nanoscale octahedron
WILLIAM M. SHIH, JOEL D. QUISPE & GERALD F. JOYCE
Nature 427, 618–621 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02307
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© 2004 Nature Publishing Group