title: Constructing Higher-Order DNA Nanoarchitectures with Highly Purified DNA Nanocages.
abstract: DNA nanostructures have attracted great attention due to their precisely controllable geometry and great potential in various areas including bottom-up self-assembly. However, construction of higher-order DNA nanoarchitectures with individual DNA nanostructures is often hampered with the purity and quantity of these "bricks". Here, we introduced size exclusion chromatography (SEC) to prepare highly purified tetrahedral DNA nanocages in large scale and demonstrated that precise quantification of DNA nanocages was the key to the formation of higher-order DNA nanoarchitectures. We successfully purified a series of DNA nanocages with different sizes, including seven DNA tetrahedra with different edge lengths (7, 10, 13, 17, 20, 26, 30 bp) and one trigonal bipyramid with a 20-bp edge. These highly purified and aggregation-free DNA nanocages could be self-assembled into higher-order DNA nanoarchitectures with extraordinarily high yields (98% for dimer and 95% for trimer). As a comparison, unpurified DNA nanocages resulted in low yield of 14% for dimer and 12% for trimer, respectively. AFM images cleraly presented the characteristic structure of monomer, dimer and trimer, impling the purified DNA nanocages well-formed the designed nanoarchitectures. Therefore, we have demonstrated that highly purified DNA nanocages are excellent "bricks" for DNA nanotechnology and show great potential in various applications of DNA nanomaterials.
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Linjie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: §College of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
authors.forename: Jiaoyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Jiye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Chunhai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: DNA tetrahedron; highly ordered DNA nanoarchitectures; purification; quantification; size exclusion chromatography