A high-fidelity light-powered nanomotor from a chemically fueled counterpart via site-specific optomechanical fuel control

Abstract

Optically powered nanomotors are advantageous for clean nanotechnology over chemically fuelled nanomotors. The two motor types are further bounded by different physical principles. Despite the gap, we show here that...

A light-operated integrated DNA walker–origami system beyond bridge burning

“…The fluorescence method in this study differs from a control-based method 24–28,30 in previous studies of DNA motors on short single-duplex tracks. For these minimal DNA tracks labelled with fluorescent dyes, the quenching is dominated by the motor-carried quenchers, and the track-only control typically exhibits a monotonic fluorescence decrease (often minor) due to photobleaching even for light-powered DNA motors 24,25,27,28,30 (including the present one, see ref. 24).…”

“…9,10,15,29 The fluorescence method is complicated by a DNA origami surface and particularly for the light-powered motor in this study. This is because the fluorescence of dyes on an origami-based track is affected not only by the motor-carried quenchers, but also by nucleotide-induced quenching 42 from the origami substrate and further by the UV and visible light irradiations for the motor's operation (e.g., photobleaching 25,27,28,30 as commonly observed for lightpowered DNA molecular motors). Compared to the motor's previous single-duplex track, the origami has much higher nucleotide density, likely resulting in serious nucleotide-induced quenching.…”

“…Advanced non-bridge-burning DNA walkers that are qualified as genuine translational molecular motors have been reported. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Their integration with DNA origami, though crucial for advancing DNA-based nano-robotics, is not achieved yet. The reported bridge-burning DNA walker-origami systems rely on creating or introducing new DNA species on a track to 'force' a directional cascade.…”

“…Such a sophisticated mechanics-centred synergic rectification 1,22,34 is sensitive to the track's small asymmetric features and the walker-track size match. 23,24 It is non trivial to adapt the size-sensitive synergic rectification to a two-dimensional DNA origami surface from a one-dimensional straight track along a single DNA duplex or a single DNA strand (whence all the reported non-bridge-burning DNA walkers [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] are developed; straight within a walker's size or a few times longer). This is because the origami surface has stronger electrostatic repulsion for a DNA walker, blocks half of its circumferential freedom on the track, and often does not allow the track's perfect straight longitudinal arrangement despite remarkable design freedom for the origami lattice.…”

Controlling DNA nanodevices with light-switchable buffers

“…To date, several strategies have been proposed for the photo-regulation of oligonucleotide structure and function. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Photocleavable groups (i.e. orthonitrobenzyl moieties) can be introduced into DNA strands to induce structural reconfiguration upon their cleavage at specific wavelengths.…”