Kinetically Controlled Self-assembly Of Dna Oligomers

摘要

DNA is widely used for programmed molecular construction at the nanometer scale. Assembly protocols usually assume that the equilibrium structure will be formed at each step. DNA has also been used to make machines, including nonequilibrium devices powered by the energy released by DNA hybridization. Nonequilibrium hybridization can also be used to create reaction circuits, and catalysis of the hybridization of DNA hairpins has been used to control the assembly of DNA oligonucleotides into larger structures. Here we present a system for kinetically controlled nonequilibrium self-assembly which employs metastable two-strand monomers~(3a) and auxiliary "rubbish collector" strands. This has the advantage that the resulting linear assemblies do not incorporate self-complementary sequence motifs (self-complementarity is characteristic of a hybridization chain reaction based on hairpin loops) allowing flexible sequence design and increasing product stability.