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Updated: Jun 5, 2026
Self-assembly of Complex Two-dimensional Shapes from Single-stranded DNA Tiles
Published on: May 8, 2015
Triplex inducer-directed self-assembly of single-walled carbon nanotubes: a triplex DNA-based approach for controlled
Chao Zhao1, Konggang Qu, Can Xu
1Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Division of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China.
Abstract:
As a promising strategy for artificially control of gene expression, reversible assembly of nanomaterials and DNA nanomachine, DNA triplex formation has received much attention. Carbon nanotubes as gene and drug delivery vector or as 'building blocks' in nano/microelectronic devices have been successfully explored. Therefore, studies on triplex DNA-based carbon nanotube hybrid materials are important for development of smart nanomaterials and for gene therapy. In this report, a small molecule directed single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) self-assembly assay has been developed by disproportionation of SWNTs-dT(22)·dA(22) duplex into triplex dT(22)·dA(22)·dT(22) and dA(22) by a triplex formation inducer, coralyne. This has been studied by circular dichroism, light scattering (LS) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrophoretic mobility shift assay and supported by using DNA random sequence. In contrast, SWNTs do not aggregate under the same experimental conditions when the small molecules used can not induce dT(22)·dA(22)·dT(22) triplex formation. Therefore, this novel small molecule-directed SWNTs self-assembly assay has also been used for screening of triplex inducers in our studies.
