title: Post-Assembly Stabilization of Rationally Designed DNA Crystals.
abstract: This manuscript reports an effort to stabilize self-assembled DNA crystals. Owing to their weak inter-unit cohesion, self-assembled DNA crystals are fragile, which limits the potential applications of such crystals. To overcome this problem, another molecule was introduced, which binds to the cohesive sites and stabilizes the inter-unit interactions. The extra interactions greatly improve the stability of the DNA crystals. The original DNA crystals are only stable in solutions of high ionic strength (e.g., ≥1.2 M (NH4)2SO4); in contrast, the stabilized crystals can be stable at ionic strengths as low as that of a 0.02 M solution of (NH4)2SO4. The current strategy is expected to represent a general approach for increasing the stability of self-assembled DNA nanostructures for potential applications, for example, as structural scaffolds and molecular sieves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Jiemin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, NY 10003 (USA).
authors.forename: Arun Richard
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Chandrasekaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, NY 10003 (USA).
authors.forename: Ruojie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sha
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, NY 10003 (USA). ned.seeman@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Nadrian C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Seeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA). mao@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Chengde
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mao
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009994:Osmolar Concentration
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: DNA structures; crystal engineering; nanostructures; self-assembly