Kinetic DNA Self-Assembly: Simultaneously Co-folding Complementary DNA Strands into Identical Nanostructures

DNA origami is a powerful method for constructing DNA nanostructures. It requires long single-stranded DNAs. The preparation of such long DNA strands is often quite tedious and has a limited production yield. In contrast, duplex DNAs can be easily prepared via enzymatic reactions in large quantities. Thus, we ask a question: can we design DNA nanostructures in such a way that the two complementary strands can simultaneously fold into the designed structures in the same solution instead of hybridizing with each other to form a DNA duplex? By engineering DNA interaction kinetics, herein we are able to provide multiple examples to concretely demonstrate a positive answer to this question. The resulting DNA nanostructures have been thoroughly characterized by electrophoresis and atomic force microscopy imaging. The reported strategy is compatible with the DNA cloning method and thus would provide a convenient method for the large-scale production of the designed DNA nanostructures.