Construction of supramolecular DNA nano-machine

Yongju Kim, Huichang Li, Ying He, Xi Chen, Xiateng Ma, Myongsoo Lee

Nature Nanotechnology, Embargo lift time (Beijing time); March 27 (23:00), 2017  

We have successfully developed supramolecular nanomachine using DNA and its coat assembly. The supramolecular nanomachine repeatedly undergoes coorperative mechanical motion with simultaneous helicity switching of DNA and synthetic assembly powered by proton energy (Figure). This mechanical motion is also driven by the internalization into biological cell, which will contribute to understand the highly puzzled role of DNA motion in life. This discovery will provide new insights into the construction of dynamic supramolecular machine using natural molecules such as proteins and gene to control biological functions and eventually cure a disease on demand.