DNA Kirigami Driven by Polymerase‐Triggered Strand Displacement

Abstract

The precursors of functional biomolecules in living cells are synthesized in a bottom‐up manner and subsequently activated by modification into a delicate structure with near‐atomic precision. DNA origami technology provides a promising way to mimic the synthesis of precursors, although mimicking the modification process is a challenge. Herein, a DNA paper‐cutting (DNA kirigami) method to trim origami into designer nanostructures is proposed, where the modification is implemented by a polymerase‐triggered DNA strand displacement reaction. Six geometric shapes are created by cutting rectangular DNA origami. Gel electrophoresis and atomic force microscopy results demonstrate the feasibility and capability of the DNA paper‐cutting method. The proposed DNA paper‐cutting strategy can enrich the toolbox for dynamically transforming DNA origami and has potential applications in biomimetics.

Disassembly of DNA origami dimers controlled by programmable polymerase primers

“…The concentration ratio of the origami dimers to the primer strand was kept at 1 : 4.8 in both experiments. 19 Fig. 1 Intuitively, the results demonstrated the rich population of dimeric tiles before the addition of the primer strand and Klenow polymerase, and an enriched population of the single tiles, after treatment with the primer strand and Klenow polymerase.…”

“…S15, ESI †). 19 This caused the separation of the quencher and the fluorophore, revealing an amount of leakage. In the presence of Klenow polymerase and primers ''aa'' or ''bb'', the fluorescence intensity was close to the leakage reaction, which indicated that few of the origami dimers were disassembled (grey curve and yellow curve).…”

Controllable dynamics of complex DNA nanostructures

“…4C). 46 Recently, Wei and colleagues demonstrated a successful structural transformation from a planar lattice into a tubular shape upon ligation treatment, in which the weak base pairings of the short sticky ends were consolidated by DNA ligase (Fig. 4D).…”

“…45 (C) Transformation of DNA origami structures into designer shapes by polymerase-triggered DNA strand displacement. 46 (D) Transformation from a planar lattice into a tubular shape upon ligation treatment. 47 (E) Allosteric transitions of DNA nanostructures upon different enzymatic processes.…”

Point‐and‐shoot Strategy based on Enzyme‐assisted DNA “Paper‐Cutting” to Construct Arbitrary Planar DNA Nanostructures

“…Therefore, developing a simple, general, and modularity strategy for building arbitrary DNA nanostructures is essential. [ 53–60 ]…”