Construction of Reconfigurable and Polymorphic DNA Origami Assemblies with Coiled-Coil Patches and Patterns

DNA origami nanodevices achieve programmable structure and tunable mechanical and dynamic properties by leveraging the sequence-specific interactions of nucleic acids. Previous advances have also established DNA origami as a useful building block to make well-defined micron-scale structures through hierarchical self-assembly, but these efforts have largely leveraged the structural features of DNA origami. The tunable dynamic and mechanical properties also provide an opportunity to make assemblies with adaptive structures and properties. Here the integration of DNA origami hinge nanodevices and coiled-coil peptides are reported into hybrid reconfigurable assemblies. With the same dynamic device and peptide interaction, it is made multiple higher-order assemblies (i.e., polymorphic assembly) by organizing clusters of peptides into patches or arranging single peptides into patterns on the surfaces of DNA origami to control the relative orientation of devices. The coiled-coil interactions are used to construct circular and linear assemblies whose structure and mechanical properties can be modulated with DNA-based reconfiguration. Reconfiguration of linear assemblies leads to micron scale motions and ≈2.5-10-fold increase in bending stiffness. The results provide a foundation for stimulus-responsive hybrid assemblies that can adapt their structure and properties in response to nucleic acid, peptide, protein, or other triggers.