Opportunities and challenges for DNA in atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing

Abstract

The subversive products obtained from atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing (ACSM) urge people to conduct more in-depth research. It is exigent to break through the limits of existing technology and construct accurately at atomic scale. With the development of DNA nanotechnology, DNA exhibits the ability to accurately localize functional units as template. These advantages of DNA in bottom-up manufacturing give it a great potential in ACSM. In this perspective, we review the ability of DNA to accurately build complex structures, and discuss its application and prospect in precise atomic manipulation. Finally, opportunities and challenges for DNA in ACSM are systematically summarized.

Three-Point-Star Deoxyribonucleic Acid Tiles with the Core Arm Length at Three Half-Turns for Two-Dimensional Archimedean Tilings and Beyond

“…Structural DNA nanotechnology has been intensely investigated for many potential applications such as drug delivery, − biotechnology, − DNA computing, , and nanofabrication. − Generally, DNA nanotechnology involves two continuous architectures: weaving DNA building motifs and tiling the motifs into 0–3D DNA arrays. The essentially woven building motifs include double crossover (DX) and coupled DX (cDX) tiles (both DAE ( d ouble crossover, a ntiparallel, an e ven number of half-turns) and DAO ( d ouble crossover, a ntiparallel, an o dd number of half-turns) tiles are well-known DX tiles), − point-star (abbreviated as PS) tiles, − DNA origami, − and single-stranded tiles and bricks. , The PS tiles each include a looped scaffold strand and several main and auxiliary helper strands, in which the two parts of the tile core and overhangs can be differentiated with the looped scaffold strand and the auxiliary helper strands, respectively (refer to Figure ).…”