Developmental Self-Assembly of a DNA Ring with Stimulus-Responsive Size and Growth Direction

Developmental self-assembly of DNA nanostructures provides an ideal platform for studying the power and programmability of kinetically controlled structural growth in engineered molecular systems. Triggered initiation and designated sequencing of assembly and disassembly steps have been demonstrated in structures with branches and loops. Here we introduce a new strategy for selectively activating distinct subroutines in a developmental self-assembly program, allowing structures with distinct properties to be created in response to various molecular signals. We demonstrate this strategy in triggered self-assembly of a DNA ring, the size and growth direction of which are responsive to a key molecule. We articulate that reversible assembly steps with slow kinetics at appropriate locations in a reaction pathway could enable multiple populations of structures with stimulus-responsive properties to be simultaneously created in one developmental program. These results open up a broad design space for the self-assembly of molecules with adaptive behaviors toward advanced control in synthetic materials and molecular motors.