Li Yougen, Tseng Yolanda D, Kwon Sang Y, D'Espaux Leo, Bunch J Scott, McEuen Paul L, Luo Dan
Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-5701, USA.
Nat Mater. 2004 Jan;3(1):38-42. doi: 10.1038/nmat1045. Epub 2003 Dec 21.
DNA possesses many desirable chemical/physical properties as a polymeric material. With the myriad of tools available to manipulate DNA, there is great potential for using DNA as a generic instead of a genetic material. Although much progress has been made in DNA computing and DNA nanotechnology, the full achievement of DNA-based materials has not yet been realized. As almost all DNA molecules are either linear or circular, to rationally construct DNA materials one must first create additional shapes of DNA as basic building blocks. In addition, these DNA building blocks must be readily incorporated into larger structures in a controlled manner. Here, we show the controlled assembly of dendrimer-like DNA (DL-DNA) from Y-shaped DNA (Y-DNA). The synthesis of Y-DNA and controlled assembly of DL-DNA were robust and efficient; the resulting DL-DNA was stable and almost monodisperse. The multivalent DNA dendrimers can be either isotropic or anisotropic, providing great potential to link other entities.
作为一种聚合材料，DNA具有许多理想的化学/物理性质。由于有大量可用于操纵DNA的工具，将DNA用作通用材料而非遗传物质具有巨大潜力。尽管在DNA计算和DNA纳米技术方面已经取得了很大进展，但基于DNA的材料的全部潜力尚未实现。由于几乎所有的DNA分子都是线性或环状的，要合理构建DNA材料，首先必须创造出额外形状的DNA作为基本构建单元。此外，这些DNA构建单元必须能够以可控的方式容易地整合到更大的结构中。在这里，我们展示了从Y形DNA（Y-DNA）可控组装树状DNA（DL-DNA）。Y-DNA的合成和DL-DNA的可控组装过程稳健且高效；所得的DL-DNA稳定且几乎单分散。多价DNA树状大分子可以是各向同性的或各向异性的，这为连接其他实体提供了巨大潜力。
