Work

Six-Helix and Eight-Helix DNA Nanotubes Assembled from Half-Tubes

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: DNA nanotubes are cylinder-like structures formed from DNA double-helical molecules whose helix axes are fused at least twice by crossovers. It is potentially useful to use such tubes as sheaths around rodlike species that arise in biological systems and in nanotechnology. It seems easiest to obtain such sheathing by joining two or more components around an object rather than attempting to thread the object through a cavity in the tube. We report two examples of tubes containing a specific number of helices that are assembled from half-tube components. These tubes are a six-helix bundle and an eight-helix bundle, constructed respectively from two bent triple-crossover (BTX) molecules and from two four-helix arched motifs. Both species contain single strands in one molecule that are missing in its mate. The six-helix bundle is formed from two different BTX molecules, whereas the eight-helix species is a closed cyclic dimer of the same molecule. We demonstrate the formation of these species by gel electrophoresis, and we examine their arrangement into long one-dimensional arrays by means of atomic force microscopy.

Source: Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl070828k

Authors: Akinori Kuzuya, Risheng Wang, Ruojie Sha, Nadrian C. Seeman

Institution: New York University

Language: English

Topic: Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: Physical Chemistry of Recombinational intermediates, G5356741539, Physical Chemistry of Recombinational Intermediates