Liang Xingguo, Takenaka Nobutaka, Nishioka Hidenori, Asanuma Hiroyuki
Department of Molecular Design and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan.
Nucleic Acids Symp Ser (Oxf). 2008(52):697-8. doi: 10.1093/nass/nrn352.
A photoresponsive DNA nano-pincette was constructed by using azobenzene-modified DNA as materials. When the azobenzene-modified part hybridizes with its complementary sequence on the pincette, the duplex formation closes it. On the contrary, the pincette is opened after the formed duplex dissociates. Based on reversible photoswitching of this DNA hybridization, the pincette involving non-substituted azobenzene can be opened simply by UV light irradiation and closed by visible light irradiation. Interestingly, the operation can be reversed by using para-isopropyl group substituted azobenzene: visible light opens the pincette, and UV light closes it. In both cases, the azobenzene-modified part was attached to the pincette throughout the open/close operation, which makes single molecular operation possible. Furthermore, the operation can be repeated many times without any decrease of the cycling efficiency and no DNA waste was produced.
以偶氮苯修饰的DNA为材料构建了一种光响应性DNA纳米镊子。当偶氮苯修饰部分与其在镊子上的互补序列杂交时，双链体的形成使其闭合。相反，形成的双链体解离后镊子打开。基于这种DNA杂交的可逆光开关特性，含有未取代偶氮苯的镊子只需通过紫外光照射即可打开，通过可见光照射则闭合。有趣的是，使用对异丙基取代的偶氮苯时操作可以反转：可见光打开镊子，紫外光闭合镊子。在这两种情况下，偶氮苯修饰部分在整个打开/闭合操作过程中都附着在镊子上，这使得单分子操作成为可能。此外，该操作可以重复多次，循环效率没有任何降低，也没有产生DNA浪费。
