Self-replication is a natural process that can generate materials and pass along information. We have seen several examples of artificial self-replication in which the template assembles, organizes and directs formation of the target nanostructure. However, the self-assembly procedure increases the template’s dimensionality, which makes it challenging to template and replicate a 3D object. Here, we report the direct self-replication of a 3D object. First, we fabricate our 3D object: a three face cube corner by folding a planer self-assembled set of three DNA origami tiles. This three face cube corner is our template. The replication proceeds by self-assembling three daughter origami tiles to three edges of the cube corner. DNA single strands on each cube face and daughter tile hybridize to fold the tiles inward and complete the cubic box. The daughter tiles are then cross-linked into a new cube corner. Heating releases the two complementary cube corners. This method provides a general bottom-up approach for conducting high-order self-replication by organizing the materials <i>via</i> folding. Considering that the 3D DNA nanostructure is a functional platform, this type of 3D self-replication is expected to produce new materials, such as chiral plasmonic nanomaterials, by passing the steric information through successive generations.

3D self-replication of DNA nanostructures

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.