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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Assembling Molecular Shuttles Powered by Reversibly Attached Kinesins
Published on: January 26, 2019
Parallel manipulation of bifunctional DNA molecules on structured surfaces using kinesin-driven microtubules
Cerasela Zoica Dinu1, Jörg Opitz, Wolfgang Pompe
1Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
Abstract:
We have developed a technique to manipulate bifunctional DNA molecules: One end is thiolated to bind to a patterned gold surface and the other end is biotinylated to bind to a microtubule gliding over a kinesin-coated surface. We found that DNA molecules can be stretched and overstretched between the gold pads and the motile microtubules, and that they can form dynamic networks. This serves as a proof-of-principle that biological machineries can be used in vitro to accomplish the parallel formation of structured DNA templates that will have applications in biophysics and nanoelectronics.
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