Moore Foundation grantees at New York University have created self-assembled, three-dimensional DNA crystals that bind to dye-bearing strands and change the color of the crystal. This exciting new finding paves the path to manipulating individual components in a crystal after it is formed.
As reported in Nature Chemistry, the team merged a self-assembled 3D DNA crystal with a strand bearing either blue or red colored dyes. Starting with a clear crystal, they tried to bind it with either a red-dye-bearing or a blue-dye-bearing strand.
In both instances, the linkage was successful: when the 3D DNA crystal combined with the red-dye-bearing strand, the crystal turned red; when the red-dye-bearing strand was removed and it was combined with the blue-dye-bearing strand, the crystal turned blue.
This cycle, using different-colored strands, can be repeated numerous times.
"We can change the contents of a crystal by adding moveable components a billionth of a meter in size," said Nadrian Seeman, a professor of chemistry at NYU and senior author of this study. "This work shows we can change the state of a crystal after it has been self-assembled by adding and removing strands."
Seeman is one of the pioneers of DNA engineering and using DNA molecules as building blocks to create different functional systems, such as self-replicating DNA tiles. Previously, Seeman and his colleagues created self-assembled, two-dimensional DNA structures that can also take on a range of shapes. This new development raises the possibility of "scaling up" nanomechanical devices in three dimensions.
"We can now move on to controlling nanomechanical assembly lines using the same approach," added Seeman.
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