Economical and versatile subunit design principles for self-assembled DNA origami structures

TL;DR

This paper presents a modular design principle for DNA origami nanoparticles that enables versatile self-assembly into various 3D structures, balancing flexibility and specificity for functional nanomaterials.

Contribution

It introduces a core-based modular approach with variable bond and angle modules, allowing customizable and error-tolerant self-assembly of complex DNA origami structures.

Findings

Subunits can self-assemble into sheets, shells, and tubes.

Flexible joints improve error tolerance and structural fidelity.

Adjusting bond diversity compensates for increased flexibility.

Abstract

Self-assembly of nanoscale synthetic subunits is a promising bottom-up strategy for fabrication of functional materials. Here, we introduce a design principle for DNA origami nanoparticles of 50-nm size, exploiting modularity, to make a family of versatile subunits that can target an abundant variety of self-assembled structures. The subunits are based on a core module that remains constant among all the subunits. Variable bond modules and angle modules are added to the exterior of the core to control interaction specificity, strength and structural geometry. A series of subunits with designed bond/angle modules are demonstrated to self-assemble into a rich variety of structures with different Gaussian curvatures, exemplified by sheets, spherical shells, and tubes. The design features flexible joints implemented using single-stranded angle modules between adjacent subunits whose mechanical properties, such as bending elastic moduli, are inferred from cryo-EM. Our findings suggest that incorporating a judicious amount of flexibility in the bond provides error tolerances in design and fabrication while still guaranteeing target fidelity. Lastly, while increasing flexibility could introduce greater variability and potential errors in assembly, these effects can be counterbalanced by increasing the number of distinct bonds, thereby allowing for precise targeting of specific structural binding angles within a broad range of configurations.