title: Transfer of molecular recognition information from DNA nanostructures to gold nanoparticles.
abstract: DNA nanotechnology offers unparalleled precision and programmability for the bottom-up organization of materials. This approach relies on pre-assembling a DNA scaffold, typically containing hundreds of different strands, and using it to position functional components. A particularly attractive strategy is to employ DNA nanostructures not as permanent scaffolds, but as transient, reusable templates to transfer essential information to other materials. To our knowledge, this approach, akin to top-down lithography, has not been examined. Here we report a molecular printing strategy that chemically transfers a discrete pattern of DNA strands from a three-dimensional DNA structure to a gold nanoparticle. We show that the particles inherit the DNA sequence configuration encoded in the parent template with high fidelity. This provides control over the number of DNA strands and their relative placement, directionality and sequence asymmetry. Importantly, the nanoparticles produced exhibit the site-specific addressability of DNA nanostructures, and are promising components for energy, information and biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Centre for Self-assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas G W
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Edwardson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Centre for Self-assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8, Canada.
authors.forename: Kai Lin
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Centre for Self-assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8, Canada.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bousmail
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Centre for Self-assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8, Canada.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Serpell
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Centre for Self-assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8, Canada.
authors.forename: Hanadi F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5100-0532
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Sleiman
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D006046:Gold; D004247:DNA