DNA containing block copolymers are expected to find utility in a wide range of biomedical applications, since these materials have the potential to encode highly specific biological information, whereas the positions at which the information is expressed can be tuned by manipulation of the block copolymer microdomain morphology. Synthesis of DNA block copolymers with desired chemical structure and composition remains to be a major challenge, as the DNA segments are different from most conventional synthetic polymers in many aspects including their solubility. Most of the earlier publications typically treat the DNA segment as another hydrophilic polymer, and known chemical synthesis techniques are applied to conjugate the DNA block with the synthetic block. In recent years, it has become clear that many molecular biology techniques commonly used to manipulate DNA can be successfully applied to DNA block copolymer as well.<br/><br/>In this contribution, we report the use of a combination of restriction enzyme and ligation enzyme to generate novel DNA hybrid material with a triblock copolymer structure. In this method, two DNA diblock copolymers are cut with the same restriction enzyme to generate complementary sticky ends. The two cut DNA segments are then reconnected using a ligation enzyme to generate the desired triblock copolymer. The triblocks are unique in the sense that all the segments are connected by covalent bond such that they remain stable even when heated to high temperatures. More importantly, we show that by using the cut and paste technique, the triblock copolymer can also be digested to regenerate the diblocks, thus allowing the material to be recycled for the generation of a different triblock copolymer.

Synthesis of DNA triblock copolymer using a combination of restriction and ligation enzymes

256th National Meeting (2018)

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