title: A Case Study of the Likes and Dislikes of DNA and RNA in Self-Assembly.
abstract: Programmed self-assembly of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) is an active research area as it promises a general approach for nanoconstruction. Whereas DNA self-assembly has been extensively studied, RNA self-assembly lags much behind. One strategy to boost RNA self-assembly is to adapt the methods of DNA self-assembly for RNA self-assembly because of the chemical and structural similarities of DNA and RNA. However, these two types of molecules are still significantly different. To enable the rational design of RNA self-assembly, a thorough examination of their likes and dislikes in programmed self-assembly is needed. The current work begins to address this task. It was found that similar, two-stranded motifs of RNA and DNA lead to similar, but clearly different nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716 (P.R. China). zuohua@swu.edu.cn.|Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA). zuohua@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Siyu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Mo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (USA).
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
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: D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D010316:Particle Size; D012313:RNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA
keywords: DNA nanostructures; DNA nanotechnology; atomic force microscopy; electron microscopy; self-assembly