Authors: Caroline Rossi-Gendron, Farah El Fakih, Laura Bourdon, Koyomi Nakazawa, Julie Finkel, Nicolas Triomphe, Léa Chocron, Masayuki Endo, Hiroshi Sugiyama, Gaëtan Bellot, Mathieu Morel, Sergii Rudiuk, Damien Baigl
Published: 2023-07-31
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-023-01468-2
Source: Full article
AbstractThermal annealing is usually needed to direct the assembly of multiple complementary DNA strands into desired entities. We show that, with a magnesium-free buffer containing NaCl, complex cocktails of DNA strands and proteins can self-assemble isothermally, at room or physiological temperature, into user-defined nanostructures, such as DNA origamis, single-stranded tile assemblies and nanogrids. In situ, time-resolved observation reveals that this self-assembly is thermodynamically controlled, proceeds through multiple folding pathways and leads to highly reconfigurable nanostructures. It allows a given system to self-select its most stable shape in a large pool of competitive DNA strands. Strikingly, upon the appearance of a new energy minimum, DNA origamis isothermally shift from one initially stable shape to a radically different one, by massive exchange of their constitutive staple strands. This method expands the repertoire of shapes and functions attainable by isothermal self-assembly and creates a basis for adaptive nanomachines and nanostructure discovery by evolution.