CAS Key Laboratory of Nano-Bio Interfaces, Division of Nanobiomedicine and i-Lab, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, People's Republic of China.
School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, 201210, People's Republic of China.
Top Curr Chem (Cham). 2020 Mar 12;378(2):33. doi: 10.1007/s41061-020-0297-5.
Self-assembly, which is ubiquitous in living systems, also stimulates countless synthetic molecular self-assembling systems. Most synthetic self-assemblies are realized by passive processes, going from high-energy states to thermodynamic equilibrium. Conversely, living systems work out of equilibrium, meaning they are energy-consuming, dissipative and active. In recently years, chemists have made extensive efforts to design artificial active self-assembly systems, which will be pivotal to emulating and understanding life. Among various strategies, emerging approaches based on DNA nanotechnology have attracted a lot of attention. Structural- as well as dynamic-DNA-nanotechnology offer diverse tools with which to design building blocks and to shape their assembly behaviors. To achieve active self-assembly, a synergy of diverse DNA techniques is essential, including structural design, controllable assembly-disassembly, autonomous assembly, molecular circuits, biochemical oscillators, and so on. In this review, we introduce progress towards, or related to, active assembly via DNA nanotechnology. Dynamic DNA assembly systems ranging from passive assembly-disassembly systems, to autonomous assembly systems to sophisticated artificial metabolism and time-clocking oscillation systems will be discussed. We catalogue these systems from the perspective of free energy change with the reaction process. We end the review with a brief outlook and discussion.
自组装在生命系统中无处不在，也激发了无数的合成分子自组装系统。大多数合成自组装是通过被动过程实现的，从高能态到热力学平衡。相反，生命系统处于非平衡状态，这意味着它们是耗能的、耗散的和主动的。近年来，化学家们在设计人工主动自组装系统方面做出了广泛的努力，这对于模拟和理解生命至关重要。在各种策略中，基于 DNA 纳米技术的新兴方法引起了广泛关注。结构和动态 DNA 纳米技术提供了多种工具，可用于设计构建块并塑造它们的组装行为。为了实现主动自组装，需要协同使用多种 DNA 技术，包括结构设计、可控的组装-拆卸、自主组装、分子电路、生化振荡器等。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了通过 DNA 纳米技术实现主动组装的进展或相关进展。我们将从自由能变化的角度讨论从被动组装-拆卸系统到自主组装系统再到复杂的人工代谢和计时振荡系统等不同的动态 DNA 组装系统。我们从反应过程的角度对这些系统进行分类。最后，我们对未来进行了简要的展望和讨论。
