Talk abstracts
Talk on Monday 11:20-11:35am submitted by Wolfgang Pfeifer
Conditional polymorphic materials self-assembly through cryptic binding sites
Wolfgang Pfeifer (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Diana Lopez (The Ohio State University), Daniel Duke (Duke University), Michael Poirier (The Ohio State University), Gaurav Arya (Duke University), Carlos Castro (The Ohio State University)
Abstract:
DNA nanotechnology enables the design of dynamic nanodevices that reconfigure in response to molecular, biophysical, or environmental cues such as nucleic acids, proteins, pH, temperature, and forces. However, these have largely been limited to individual devices that convert inputs into fluorescence readouts. Here we demonstrate proof-of-concept for nanodevices that transduce one or more cues into materials self-assembly. We achieve this through the design of DNA nanodevices where binding sites for self-assembly are initially occluded on the core of the structure, and input cues drive reconfiguration of the nanodevice to expose these binding sites. Our approach is inspired by the concept of cryptic binding sites in proteins that are exposed by cues like forces or binding events to trigger downstream functions. (1) Similarly, our DNA origami nanodevices require triggered structural reconfiguration before they can partake in any hierarchical assembly reactions. We have designed and fabricated multiple unique and modular structures to realize different outcomes, (2, 3) depending on the initial environmental cues. We use electron microscopy and computational approaches to characterize our systems and show that depending on the superstructure different viscoelastic properties can be realized. Combining these devices together with a modular spacer unit leads to polymorphic assemblies, which allows to tailor materials as needed from the same reaction and sets a foundation for materials on demand fabrication using DNA origami.
References:
1) J. Zhu, C. L. Hoop, D. A. Case, J. Baum, Cryptic binding sites become accessible through surface reconstruction of the type I collagen fibril. Scientific reports 8, 16646 (2018).
2) W. Pfeifer, P. Lill, C. Gatsogiannis, B. Sacca, Hierarchical Assembly of DNA Filaments with Designer Elastic Properties. ACS nano 12, 44-55 (2018).
3) M. DeLuca, Z. Shi, C. E. Castro, G. Arya, Dynamic DNA nanotechnology: toward functional nanoscale devices. Nanoscale Horizons 5, 182-201 (2020).
Keywords: DNA origami, Polymorphic assembly, Materials on demand