Stochastic size control of self-assembled filaments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method for controlling the size and shape of self-assembled filaments using promiscuous short-range interactions, enabling precise size distribution management and hierarchical assembly for complex structures.

Contribution

It presents a novel, experimentally straightforward approach for size control in self-assembly, including hierarchical protocols for higher-dimensional structures.

Findings

Independent control over mean and width of filament size distribution

Hierarchical assembly reduces times and extends to complex structures

Applicable to DNA origami, polymers, and other systems

Abstract

Controlling the size and shape of assembled structures is a fundamental challenge in self-assembly, and is highly relevant in material design and biology. Here, we show that specific, but promiscuous, short-range binding interactions make it possible to economically assemble linear filaments of user-defined length. Our approach leads to independent control over the mean and width of the filament size distribution and allows us to smoothly explore design trade-offs between assembly quality (spread in size) and cost (number of particle species). We employ a simple hierarchical assembly protocol to minimize assembly times, and show that multiple stages of hierarchy make it possible to extend our approach to the assembly of higher-dimensional structures. Our work provides a simple and experimentally straightforward solution to size control that is immediately applicable to a broad range of systems, from DNA origami assemblies to supramolecular polymers and beyond.