Tiling Surfaces with Self-assembling DNA

Some DNA aficionados have a twisted take on their favorite molecule: It’s not DNA’s ability to carry genetic information that interests them so much as its potential to build into tiny structures, among them nanoscale triangles and cubes.

For their part, Leonard Adleman—a pioneer in the use of DNA molecules for computing—and his coworkers in the Laboratory for Molecular Science at the University of Southern California have designed a quartet of double-helix snippets (left) with sequences that enable them to twine into what they call double-double crossover complexes. These, in turn, snap together like do-it-yourself flooring tiles, which are discernible in the atomic force microscope image (right). Each self-assembling tile is about 10 nm by 14 nm (J. Am. Chem. Soc., published online Nov. 24, dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja0557177).

The researchers suggest that planar DNA structures could serve as “scaffoldings for the deposition of nanomaterials in the creation of high-density electrical and quantum devices,” such as data storage and processing components. DNA tilings with complex, tapestry-like textures as well as DNA tiles that self-assemble into intricate 3-D structures are on the way, Adleman predicts.