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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Synthetic Condensates and Cell-Like Architectures from Amphiphilic DNA Nanostructures
Published on: May 31, 2024
Cooperative melting in caged dimers of rigid small molecule-DNA hybrids
Brian R Stepp1, Julianne M Gibbs-Davis, Dorothea L F Koh
1Department of Chemistry and International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
Abstract:
Rigid small-molecule DNA hybrids (rSMDHs) have been synthesized with three DNA strands attached to a rigid tris(phenylacetylene) core. When combined under dilute conditions, complementary rSMDHs form cage dimers that melt at >10 degrees C higher and much sharper than either unmodified DNA duplexes or rSMDH aggregates formed at higher concentrations. With a 2.97 average number of cooperative duplexes, these caged dimers constitute the first example of cooperative melting in well-defined DNA-small-molecule structures, demonstrating the important roles that local geometry and ion concentration play in the hybridization/dehybridization of DNA-based materials.
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