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Published February 16, 2016 | public
Journal Article

Creating Programmable Disorder in DNA Origami Arrays with Combinatorial Patterns

Abstract

DNA origami and other DNA nanostructures have been used as scaffolds to organize various molecules with high programmability and spatial precision, but of a limited size. Arrays of DNA origami and smaller DNA tiles have been created to provide structural patterns on a larger scale, but either with limited pattern complexity, or requiring specific tile-tile interactions that limit practical experimental demonstrations. Here we show that the principle of non-deterministic Truchet tiling can be applied to provide a simple solution for creating complex nanoscale patterns that have combinatorial diversity and programmable features. As an example, we constructed patterns of random mazes with distinct emergent properties and with sizes of up to several microns, each self-assembled from thousands of square DNA origami tiles that are labeled with simple local patterns. We further demonstrated precise control of pattern complexity by creating DNA origami arrays with unprecedented yield and finite sizes ranging from 4 to 25 tiles in each assembly, and showed the generality of our approach using arrays of triangular DNA origami tiles. The nanoscale mazes that we created could be used to test the robustness of molecular machines against a variety of operating environments with increasing complexity. Broadly speaking, by attaching proteins, metal nanoparticles, and organic dyes to origami arrays with combinatorial patterns of programmable features, our approach could potentially enable efficient screening of functional molecular devices and advance nanoscale fabrication. Importantly, our work highlights the need for better understanding of programmable disorder and how it can be more generally applied in engineered molecular systems to enable solutions for problems that simultaneously demand complexity, diversity, and efficiency -- much like the algorithms we see in nature that exploit a sophisticated blend of deterministic and random processes.

Additional Information

© 2016 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023