title: Generic technique to generate large branched DNA complexes.
abstract: The inherent self-recognition properties of DNA have led to its use as a scaffold for various nanotechnology self-assembly applications, with macromolecular complexes, metallic and semiconducting nanoparticles, proteins, inter alia, being assembled onto a designed DNA scaffold. Such structures may typically comprise a number of DNA molecules organized into macromolecules. Many studies have used synthetic methods to produce the constituent DNA molecules, but this typically constrains the molecules to be no longer than around 100 base pairs (30 nm). However, applications that require larger self-assembling DNA complexes, several tens of nanometers or more, need to be generated by other techniques. Here, we present a generic technique to generate large linear, branched, and/or circular DNA macromolecular complexes. The effectiveness of this technique is demonstrated here by the use of Lambda Bacteriophage DNA as a template to generate single- and double-branched DNA structures approximately 120 nm in size.
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tosch
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wälti
authors.forename: Anton P J
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Middelberg
authors.forename: A Giles
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Davies
mesh_terms: D000538:Aluminum Silicates / Q000737:chemistry; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D036103:Nanotechnology; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D010957:Plasmids / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D004247:DNA; C011934:mica