Tuesday, 24 January, 2023

Regulating DNA-Hybridization Using a Chemically Fueled Reaction Cycle

M. Stasi, A. Monferrer, L. Babl, S. Wunnava, C. F. Dirscherl, D. Braun, P. Schwille, H. Dietz, J. Boekhoven

10.1021/jacs.2c08463

Molecular machines, such as ATPases or motor proteins, couple the catalysis of a chemical reaction, most commonly hydrolysis of nucleotide triphosphates, to their conformational change. In essence, they continuously convert a chemical fuel to drive their motion. An outstanding goal of nanotechnology remains to synthesize a nano-machine with similar functions, precision, and speed. The field of DNA nanotechnology has given rise to the engineering precision required for such a device. Simultaneously, the field of systems chemistry developed fast chemical reaction cycles that convert fuel to change the function of molecules. In this work, we thus combined a chemical reaction cycle with the precision of DNA nanotechnology to yield kinetic control over the conformational state of a DNA hairpin. Future work on such systems will result in out-of-equilibrium DNA nanodevices with precise functions.