Biological motor proteins that convert chemical energy into controlled nanomechanical motion are essential and shared among all branches of life. For example, groups of myosin motors proteins collectively take defined linear steps to power muscle contraction and vesicle transport. Accordingly, there is considerable interest in developing synthetic analogues. Among the synthetic motors created thus far, unipedal and bipedal DNA walkers that undertake discrete steps on RNA tracks have shown the greatest promise with applications spanning from biosensing to cargo transport and cargo sorting. Nonetheless, DNA-based walkers<sup> </sup>fall short because of their limited speed, low endurance, and the lack of preferred directionality which is ultimately due to the lack of coordination between individual DNA legs. Herein, we uncover the design principles for creating autonomous, ballistic and processive DNA motors. By taking advantage of the DNA origami three-dimensional self-assembly technique, we created a library of DNA motors that allow testing of structure-function relationships at the nanoscale. This led to rod-shaped DNA nanomotor that linearly and autonomously translocates without intervention through a forcefield or patterned track. 144-DNA leg motors coordinate and harness the energy stored in RNA to drive motion at 100 nm/min speeds and over mm distances. These findings provide the rules for creating cooperative and more sophisticated synthetic molecular motors, thus reducing the gap in capabilities between biological and synthetic motors.

Programmable DNA origami motors that convert chemical energy into linear motion

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.