Nanoscale Patterning of Surfaces via DNA Directed Spider Silk Assembly

Oligonucleotide-spider silk conjugates can be placed on silicon wafers by complementary DNA strands, which are coupled chemically to the surface. Such specific immobilization of spider silk proteins allows the nucleation and guided growth of β-sheet-rich nanofibrils in the presence of phosphate ions on the surface. Adjustment of the concentration of the immobilized conjugate, phosphate concentration and time of the assembly reaction enables control over fibril surface density and length. Furthermore, soft lithography was used to direct the conjugates on predetermined spots with a submicron resolution yielding high contrast surface patterns. This approach, which combines bottom-up and top-down surface structuring, opens up new possibilities in protein fibril based bionanotechnology.