Double cohesion in structural DNA nanotechnology

Abstract

Double cohesion has proved to be a useful tool to assemble robust 2D arrays of large tiles. Here we present a variety of examples showing the utility of this approach. We apply this principle to the 3 types of 2D lattice sections of arrays whose individual tiles are inherently 3 dimensional, because they contain three vectors that span 3-space. This application includes motifs which are based on the tensegrity triangle, the six-helix bundle motif and on three skewed triple crossover molecules. All of these designs have the potential to form 3 dimensional structures if all three directions of propagation are allowed. If one direction is blunted, 2D arrays form, and all 3 combinations are presented here. In addition, a large parallelogram array that was not attainable previously using single duplex cohesion was also constructed using double cohesion. For comparison, arrays which use another type of double cohesion, double paranemic (PX) cohesion are also presented. Double cohesion of sticky ends proved to be the more effective tool to assemble large motifs into arrays.