Construction of a junction DNA nanostructure and modulation of the junction switching to quadruplexes

• Main Authors: Yanwei Cao, Xiaoxuan Xiang, Renjun Pei, Yang Li, Yuting Yan, Xinhua Guo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2017-01-01
• Series: Royal Society Open Science
• Subjects: duplex junction; g-quadruplex; i-motif; dna nanostructure; structural switch
• Online Access: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171337

A junction DNA nanostructure has been successfully built in lithium acetate buffer solution at a near-neutral pH value through the connection of two slipped junction structures that are formed by G-rich and C-rich strands. The GC-rich duplex junctions in the nanostructure can be switched to G-quadruplexes and i-motifs in weakly acidic potassium acetate solution, which leads to the assembly of DNA nanostructures composed of alternating quadruplex and duplex DNA structures. The transformation between different DNA nanoarchitectures may be applied to the operation of ‘DNA nanomachines’.