Photocleavable ligands for protein decoration of DNA nanostructures

This work describes the synthesis of amino-reactive, photocleavable hapten-modifiers and their application as affinity tags for DNA nanostructures. In particular, N-hydroxysuccinimide-activated linkers containing an α-methyl-nitroveratryl-butyric acid group and carboxyfluorescein or biotin were synthesized and coupled to alkyl-amino-modified DNA oligonucleotides. The resulting conjugates were then incorporated into DNA origami nanostructures. As demonstrated by electrophoresis and AFM imaging, the functionalized nanostructures were capable to bind cognate proteins which could then be cleaved-off by irradiation. Owing to its modularity, this approach to control protein binding should be useful for a wide variety of functional DNA nanostructures.