据一项新的研究披露，在合适的情况下，科学家们能够比过去更为有效地诱导DNA折叠成为复杂的、纳米尺度的物体。这些发现应该会使诸如纳米级电子器件或药物输送系统等的DNA纳米技术在实际应用上更为有用。在过去的研究中，科学家们通过折叠由短DNA“书钉”捆绑的某单股DNA“支架” 而制作出了一系列令人印象深刻的三维、纳米大小的物体。这些过程往往是缓慢的——需要耗时多日——且产生出相对少量的最终产品。Jean-Philippe Sobczak及其在德国的同事用一种荧光染料来检查该折叠过程以测量在折叠中双股DNA的形成或在展开时单股DNA的形成。他们还在不同的时间和温度急速冷冻样品并检查这些产物。研究人员发现了以数量级加速折叠的反应条件——在某些情况下可至分钟水平——并使产出增加了近100%。文章的作者推测，这一过程的某些方面与蛋白质折叠类似，而这一加快的过程也许有一天会使在细胞内生产这些物体成为可能。(生物谷Bioon.com)
DOI: 10.1126/science.1229919
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Rapid Folding of DNA into Nanoscale Shapes at Constant Temperature
Jean-Philippe J. Sobczak, Thomas G. Martin, Thomas Gerling, Hendrik Dietz*
We demonstrate that, at constant temperature, hundreds of DNA strands can cooperatively fold a long template DNA strand within minutes into complex nanoscale objects. Folding occurred out of equilibrium along nucleation-driven pathways at temperatures that could be influenced by the choice of sequences, strand lengths, and chain topology. Unfolding occurred in apparent equilibrium at higher temperatures than those for folding. Folding at optimized constant temperatures enabled the rapid production of three-dimensional DNA objects with yields that approached 100%. The results point to similarities with protein folding in spite of chemical and structural differences. The possibility for rapid and high-yield assembly will enable DNA nanotechnology for practical applications.
