Design And Construction Of Modular DNA Origami Structures

Over the past three decades,tremendous progress has been made in DNA nanotechnology field,and DNA nanostructures have become a powerful tool in various research fields.One of the most important research subjects is to design and construct more DNA nanostructures to satisfy diverse downstream applications.Here we introduce a simplified architecture to design origami nanostructures with modules connected by parallel staples.A series of basic two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures are successfully constructed.The influence of different designing parameters on the structure shape and property is explored.As the structures can be virtually divided into blocks,modular remodeling such as translocation,extension,and bending is carried out.We discover that structures under such a designing framework have two conformations.The orientation of DNA helices in one conformations is perpendicular to the other.The conformation of structures depends on some special staples,which can enhance the stiffness of DNA helices at the edge of structures and thus decide the orientation of all helices.Conformation of assembled structures can be changed.We find that structures with less DNA helices assemble faster,and have revealed the mechanism of this phenomenon.The distance between the two binding sites,which can pair with the two binding domains of each staple,decides the binding propensity of the staple.If the proportion of staples with high binding propensity is large,the structure assembles fast.We also propose a modular architecture to design wireframe origami nanostructures.We constructed a two-dimensional wireframe structure with 6-arm junctions and a three-dimensional wireframe structure with special 4-arm junctions.The two basic structures were remodeled in a modular way.