A DNA origami rotary ratchet motor

Abstract

To impart directionality to the motions of a molecular mechanism, one must overcome the random thermal forces that are ubiquitous on such small scales and in liquid solution at ambient temperature. In equilibrium without energy supply, directional motion cannot be sustained without violating the laws of thermodynamics. Under conditions away from thermodynamic equilibrium, directional motion may be achieved within the framework of Brownian ratchets, which are diffusive mechanisms that have broken inversion symmetry1–5. Ratcheting is thought to underpin the function of many natural biological motors, such as the F1F0-ATPase6–8, and it has been demonstrated experimentally in synthetic microscale systems (for example, to our knowledge, first in ref. 3) and also in artificial molecular motors created by organic chemical synthesis9–12. DNA nanotechnology13 has yielded a variety of nanoscale mechanisms, including pivots, hinges, crank sliders and rotary systems14–17, which can adopt different configurations, for example, triggered by strand-displacement reactions18,19 or by changing environmental parameters such as pH, ionic strength, temperature, external fields and by coupling their motions to those of natural motor proteins20–26. This previous work and considering low-Reynolds-number dynamics and inherent stochasticity27,28 led us to develop a nanoscale rotary motor built from DNA origami that is driven by ratcheting and whose mechanical capabilities approach those of biological motors such as F1F0-ATPase.

Switchable and dynamic G-quadruplexes and their applications

“…An important advance in DNA nanotechnology has involved the programmed assembly of higher order assemblies, such as Yshaped or cross-over Holliday junction DNA assemblies, 91 twodimensional or three-dimensional DNA origami structures 92 or three-dimensional DNA tetrahedra. 93,94 The engineering of these assemblies allows the programmed positioning of nucleic acids strands on the scaffold, allowing the positioning of protruding tethers that act as anchoring units for binding auxiliary constituents such as enzymes 95 or nanoparticles.…”

DNA-mediated dynamic plasmonic nanostructures: assembly, actuation, optical properties, and biological applications

“…Besides, DNA origami with custom-designed structures and unique addressability enables the design and construction of complex nanostructures. [98][99][100][101][102]…”

3D RNA-scaffolded wireframe origami

“…Scaffolded DNA origami 14 , in particular, has been demonstrated to enable the fabrication of nearly arbitrary 2D and 3D dense, bricklike [15][16][17] as well as porous, meshlike wireframe [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] objects by folding a single-stranded DNA scaffold to user-specified geometries via annealing with shorter DNA staple strands. These discrete DNA structures are versatile and broadly useful for numerous applications in materials 9,11,12,25 , therapeutics 1,2 and cellular biophysics 3,26,27 .…”