A Chemo-Mechanically Coupled DNA Origami Clamp Capable of Generating Robust Compression Forces

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology
• Biophysics
• Synthetic Biology

Background:

• Dynamic DNA nanostructures are crucial for studying biological mechanics and creating artificial nanosystems.
• Existing nanodevices often generate small, non-deterministic forces (≈0.4 pN) due to probabilistic hybridization reactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a DNA nanostructure capable of robustly generating large single molecular forces.
• To engineer a nanodevice with deterministic and amplified force generation for nanosystems.

Main Methods:

• Development of an intercalator-triggered dynamic DNA origami nanostructure.
• Utilizing local binding reactions between intercalators and the nanostructure for collective force generation.
• Testing the nanostructure's compression forces on biomolecular loads of varying stiffnesses (3, 4, and 6-helix DNA bundles).

Main Results:

• The novel nanostructure robustly generates significantly larger compression forces (≈11.2 pN) compared to existing methods.
• The generated forces were sufficient to efficiently bend different biomolecular loads, including DNA bundles.
• Demonstrated deterministic and amplified force generation through intercalator binding.

Conclusions:

• This intercalator-triggered DNA nanostructure offers a powerful and robust tool for generating large molecular forces.
• The developed nanodevice advances the construction of chemo-mechanically coupled molecular machines in synthetic nanosystems.
• Provides a new platform for precise mechanical control at the nanoscale.