Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.
Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, West Midlands CV4 7AL, UK.
Nat Chem. 2016 Jun;8(6):542-8. doi: 10.1038/nchem.2495. Epub 2016 Apr 11.
Molecular machines that assemble polymers in a programmed sequence are fundamental to life. They are also an achievable goal of nanotechnology. Here, we report synthetic molecular machinery made from DNA that controls and records the formation of covalent bonds. We show that an autonomous cascade of DNA hybridization reactions can create oligomers, from building blocks linked by olefin or peptide bonds, with a sequence defined by a reconfigurable molecular program. The system can also be programmed to achieve combinatorial assembly. The sequence of assembly reactions and thus the structure of each oligomer synthesized is recorded in a DNA molecule, which enables this information to be recovered by PCR amplification followed by DNA sequencing.
能够按特定顺序组装聚合物的分子机器是生命的基础，也是纳米技术的可行目标。在此，我们报告了一种由 DNA 制成的合成分子机器，它可以控制和记录共价键的形成。我们发现，DNA 杂交反应的自主级联可以生成由烯烃或肽键连接的寡聚物，其序列由可重构的分子程序定义。该系统还可以进行组合组装的编程。每个合成的寡聚物的组装反应顺序，即其结构，都记录在一个 DNA 分子中，这使得通过 PCR 扩增和 DNA 测序可以恢复这些信息。
