Programming the Nucleation of DNA Brick Self-Assembly with a Seeding Strand.

Recently, the DNA brick strategy has provided a highly modular and scalable approach for the construction of complex structures, which can be used as nanoscale pegboards for the precise organization of molecules and nanoparticles for many applications. Despite the dramatic increase of structural complexity provided by the DNA brick method, the assembly pathways are still poorly understood. Herein, we introduce a "seed" strand to control the crucial nucleation and assembly pathway in DNA brick assembly. Through experimental studies and computer simulations, we successfully demonstrate that the regulation of the assembly pathways through seeded growth can accelerate the assembly kinetics and increase the optimal temperature by circa 4-7 °C for isothermal assembly. By improving our understanding of the assembly pathways, we provide new guidelines for the design of programmable pathways to improve the self-assembly of DNA nanostructures.