Artificial G-wire switch with 2,2'-bipyridine units responsive to divalent metal ions

Development of a guanine nanowire (G-wire) that is controllable and can be switched by external signals is important for the creation of molecular electronic technologies. Here, we constructed a G-wire in which the thymines of the main chain of d(G4T4G4) were replaced with 2,2'-bipyridine units, which have two aromatic rings that rotate arbitrarily upon coordination with metal ions. Circular dichroism of the DNA oligonucleotides with or without the 2,2'-bipyridine unit showed that divalent metal ions induce the bipyridine-containing oligonucleotide to switch from an antiparallel to a parallel G-quadruplex. Native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the parallel-stranded G-quadruplex DNA had a high-order structure. Circular dichroism and native gel electrophoresis analyses suggested that adding Na2EDTA causes a reverse structural transition from a parallel-stranded high-order structure to an antiparallel G-quadruplex. Moreover, atomic force microscopy showed a long nanowire ( approximately 200 nm) in the presence of Ni2+ but no significant image in the absence of Ni2+ or in the presence of both Ni2+ and Na2EDTA. These observations revealed that the parallel-stranded high-order structure is a G-wire containing numerous DNA oligonucleotide strands bound together via divalent metal ion-2,2'-bipyridine complexes. Finally, we found that alternating addition of Ni2+ and Na2EDTA can cycle the G-wire between the high-order and disorganized structures, with an average cycling efficiency of 0.95 (i.e., 5% loss per cycle). These results demonstrate that a DNA oligonucleotide incorporating the 2,2'-bipyridine unit acts as a G-wire switch that can be controlled by chemical input signals, namely, divalent metal ions.