title: Facile and scalable preparation of pure and dense DNA origami solutions.
abstract: DNA has become a prime material for assembling complex three-dimensional objects that promise utility in various areas of application. However, achieving user-defined goals with DNA objects has been hampered by the difficulty to prepare them at arbitrary concentrations and in user-defined solution conditions. Here, we describe a method that solves this problem. The method is based on poly(ethylene glycol)-induced depletion of species with high molecular weight. We demonstrate that our method is applicable to a wide spectrum of DNA shapes and that it achieves excellent recovery yields of target objects up to 97 %, while providing efficient separation from non-integrated DNA strands. DNA objects may be prepared at concentrations up to the limit of solubility, including the possibility for bringing DNA objects into a solid phase. Due to the fidelity and simplicity of our method we anticipate that it will help to catalyze the development of new types of applications that use self-assembled DNA objects.
authors.affiliation: Physik Department, Walter Schottky Institute, Technische Universität München, Am Coulombwall 4a, 85748 Garching (Germany) http://bionano.physik.tu-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Evi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stahl
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Praetorius
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dietz
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D008970:Molecular Weight; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry; D012996:Solutions
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D004247:DNA
keywords: DNA nanotechnology; DNA origami; molecular crowding; poly(ethylene glycol); self-assembly