Biomedical subjects

Nadrian C Seeman

Publications and source records attributed to Nadrian C Seeman.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Nylon/DNA: Single-stranded DNA with a covalently stitched nylon lining.

The synthesis of DNA/nylon ladder oligomers is described. Three stages of the development are addressed: the synthesis of 2'-beta-substituted phosphoramidites, the deprotection/purification protocols of ODNs modified with both amino and carboxyl groups, and amide bond-forming reactions on the ODNs. The established technology and the novel DNA-based ladder oligomer structure opens a pathway to the synthesis of topological molecular objects and networks templated by DNA through versatile DNA nanotechnology. The DNA-based ladder oligomers may find application in the antisense area.

Alkylation↗

PubMed2003

Biochemistry and structural DNA nanotechnology: an evolving symbiotic relationship.

Structural DNA nanotechnology is derived from naturally occurring structures and phenomena in cellular biochemistry. Motifs based on branched DNA molecules are linked together by sticky ends to produce objects, periodic arrays, and nanomechanical devices. The motifs include Holliday junction analogues, double and triple crossover molecules, knots, and parallelograms. Polyhedral catenanes, such as a cube or a truncated octahedron, have been assembled from branched junctions. Stiff motifs have been used to produce periodic arrays, containing topographic features visible in atomic force microscopy; these include deliberately striped patterns and cavities whose sizes can be tuned by design. Deliberately knotted molecules have been assembled. Aperiodic arrangements of DNA tiles can be used to produce assemblies corresponding to logical computation. Both DNA structural transitions and branch migration have been used as the basis for the operation of DNA nanomechanical devices. Structural DNA nanotechnology has been used in a number of applications in biochemistry. An RNA knot has been used to establish the existence of RNA topoisomerase activity. The sequence dependence of crossover isomerization and branch migration at symmetric sites has been established through the use of symmetric immobile junctions. DNA parallelogram arrays have been used to determine the interhelical angles for a variety of DNA branched junctions. The relationship between biochemistry and structural DNA nanotechnology continues to grow.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

DNA in a material world.

The specific bonding of DNA base pairs provides the chemical foundation for genetics. This powerful molecular recognition system can be used in nanotechnology to direct the assembly of highly structured materials with specific nanoscale features, as well as in DNA computation to process complex information. The exploitation of DNA for material purposes presents a new chapter in the history of the molecule.

DNA↗

PubMed2003

The flexibility of DNA double crossover molecules.

Double crossover molecules are DNA structures containing two Holliday junctions connected by two double helical arms. There are several types of double crossover molecules, differentiated by the relative orientations of their helix axes, parallel or antiparallel, and by the number of double helical half-turns (even or odd) between the two crossovers. They are found as intermediates in meiosis and they have been used extensively in structural DNA nanotechnology for the construction of one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays and in a DNA nanomechanical device. Whereas the parallel double helical molecules are usually not well behaved, we have focused on the antiparallel molecules; antiparallel molecules with an even number of half-turns between crossovers (termed DAE molecules) produce a reporter strand when ligated, facilitating their characterization in a ligation cyclization assay. Hence, we have estimated the flexibility of antiparallel DNA double crossover molecules by means of ligation-closure experiments. We are able to show that these molecules are approximately twice as rigid as linear duplex DNA.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2002

Paranemic cohesion of topologically-closed DNA molecules.

Specific cohesion of DNA molecules is key to the success of work in biotechnology, DNA nanotechnology and DNA-based computation. The most common form of intermolecular cohesion between double helices is by sticky ends, but sticky ends generated by naturally occurring restriction enzymes may often be too short to bind large constructs together. An alternative form of binding is available through the paranemic crossover (PX) motif. Each of the two components of a PX motif can be a DNA dumbbell or other topologically closed species. Alternate half-turns of the dumbbell are paired intramolecularly. The intervening half-turns are paired with those of the opposite component. We demonstrate the efficacy of PX cohesion by showing that it can result in the 1:1 binding of two triangle motifs, each containing nearly 500 nucleotides. The cohesion goes to completion, demonstrating an alternative to binding nucleic acid molecules through sticky ends.

DNA↗

PubMed2002

Circuits and programmable self-assembling DNA structures.

Self-assembly is beginning to be seen as a practical vehicle for computation. We investigate how basic ideas on tiling can be applied to the assembly and evaluation of circuits. We suggest that these procedures can be realized on the molecular scale through the medium of self-assembled DNA tiles. One layer of self-assembled DNA tiles will be used as the program or circuit that leads to the computation of a particular Boolean expression. This layer templates the assembly of tiles, and their associations then lead to the actual evaluation involving the input data. We describe DNA motifs that can be used for this purpose; we show how the template layer can be programmed, in much the way that a general-purpose computer can run programs for a variety of applications. The molecular system that we describe is fundamentally a pair of two-dimensional layers, but it seems possible to extend this system to multiple layers.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2002

Parallel symmetric immobile DNA junctions as substrates for E. coli RuvC Holliday junction resolvase.

RuvC is a well-characterized Holliday junction resolvase from E. coli. The presence of symmetry in its preferred recognition sequence leads to ambiguity in the position of the crossover point in the junction, because a symmetric junction can undergo branch migration. Symmetric immobile junctions are junctions that contain such symmetric sites, but are prevented from migrating by their physical characteristics. RuvC activity had been analyzed previously by traditional symmetric immobile junctions, in which the helix axes are held antiparallel in a double-crossover motif. Bowtie junctions are branched four-arm molecules containing 5',5' and 3',3' linkages at their crossover points. A new type of symmetric immobile junction can be made by flanking the crossover point of a Bowtie junction with a symmetric sequence. The junction is immobile because mobility would lead to pairing between parallel, rather than antiparallel, nucleotide pairs. In contrast to conventional Holliday junctions and their analogues, the Bowtie junction assumes a parallel, rather than antiparallel, helical domain conformation, offering a new type of substrate for Holliday junction resolvases. Here, we report the digestion of Bowtie junctions by RuvC. We demonstrate that Bowtie junctions can function as symmetric immobile junctions in this system. We also show that RuvC cleaves antiparallel junctions much more efficiently than parallel junctions, where the protein can bind (and cleave) only one site at a time. These data suggest that the presence of two binding sites leads to communication between the two subunits of the enzyme to increase its activity.

DNA Footprinting↗

PubMed2002

Atomic force microscopic measurement of the interdomain angle in symmetric Holliday junctions.

The Holliday junction is a key intermediate in genetic recombination. It consists of four DNA strands that associate by base pairing to produce four double helices flanking a junction point. In the presence of multivalent cations, the four helices, in turn, stack in pairs to form two double-helical domains. The angle between these domains has been shown in a number of solution studies to be approximately 60 degrees in junctions flanked by asymmetric sequences. However, the recently determined crystal structure of a symmetric junction [Eichman, B. F., Vargason, J. M., Mooers, B. H. M., and Ho, P. S. (2000) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97, 3971-3976] finds an angle closer to 40 degrees, possibly because of sequence effects. From the crystal structure alone, one cannot exclude the possibility that this unusual angle is a consequence of crystal packing effects. We have formed two-dimensional (2D) periodic arrays of DNA parallelograms with the same junction-flanking sequence used to produce the crystals; these parallelograms are free to adopt their preferred interdomain angle. Atomic force microscopy can be used to establish the interdomain angle in this system. We find that the angle in this junction is 43 degrees, in good agreement with the results of crystallography. We have used hydroxyl radical autofootprinting to establish that the branch point is at the same migratory position seen in the crystals.

Base Sequence↗

PubMed2002

Emulating biology: building nanostructures from the bottom up.

The biological approach to nanotechnology has produced self-assembled objects, arrays and devices; likewise, it has achieved the recognition of inorganic systems and the control of their growth. Can these approaches now be integrated to produce useful systems?

DNA↗

PubMed2002

A robust DNA mechanical device controlled by hybridization topology.

Controlled mechanical movement in molecular-scale devices has been realized in a variety of systems-catenanes and rotaxanes, chiroptical molecular switches, molecular ratchets and DNA-by exploiting conformational changes triggered by changes in redox potential or temperature, reversible binding of small molecules or ions, or irradiation. The incorporation of such devices into arrays could in principle lead to complex structural states suitable for nanorobotic applications, provided that individual devices can be addressed separately. But because the triggers commonly used tend to act equally on all the devices that are present, they will need to be localized very tightly. This could be readily achieved with devices that are controlled individually by separate and device-specific reagents. A trigger mechanism that allows such specific control is the reversible binding of DNA strands, thereby 'fuelling' conformational changes in a DNA machine. Here we improve upon the initial prototype system that uses this mechanism but generates by-products, by demonstrating a robust sequence-dependent rotary DNA device operating in a four-step cycle. We show that DNA strands control and fuel our device cycle by inducing the interconversion between two robust topological motifs, paranemic crossover (PX) DNA and its topoisomer JX2 DNA, in which one strand end is rotated relative to the other by 180 degrees. We expect that a wide range of analogous yet distinct rotary devices can be created by changing the control strands and the device sequences to which they bind.

Base Pairing↗

PubMed2002

Reaction of N3-benzoyl-3',5'-O-(di-tert-butylsilanediyl)uridine with hindered electrophiles: intermolecular N3 to 2'-O protecting group transfer.

The compound N3-benzoyl-3',5'-O-(di-tert-butylsilanediyl)uridine 2 was alkylated with various alkyl iodides in CH3CN in the presence of base. Normal 2'-O-alkylated products were obtained with methyl or benzyl iodide. If hindered alkyl iodides with beta-branching such as 2-ethylbutyl iodide were used as electrophiles under the same conditions, N3-alkyl-2'-O-benzoyl uridine derivatives were produced. This unexpected transformation is usually dormant with reactive alkylating agents, but expressed with sterically hindered, less reactive electrophiles. This unwanted reaction gives isomeric products whose spectra differ in only subtle ways from target compounds.

Alkylation↗