title: Rational design of pH-controlled DNA strand displacement.
abstract: Achieving strategies to finely regulate with biological inputs the formation and functionality of DNA-based nanoarchitectures and nanomachines is essential toward a full realization of the potential of DNA nanotechnology. Here we demonstrate an unprecedented, rational approach to achieve control, through a simple change of the solution's pH, over an important class of DNA association-based reactions. To do so we took advantage of the pH dependence of parallel Hoogsteen interactions and rationally designed two triplex-based DNA strand displacement strategies that can be triggered and finely regulated at either basic or acidic pHs. Because pH change represents an important input both in healthy and pathological biological pathways, our findings can have implication for the development of DNA nanostructures whose assembly and functionality can be triggered in the presence of specific biological targets.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche, University of Rome, Tor Vergata , Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amodio
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Porchetta
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Idili
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castronovo
authors.forename: Chunhai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ricci
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004247:DNA