Prev. Article Next Article Table of Contents

Letter

DNA Nanomechanical Switches under Folding Kinetics Control

Virgile Viasnoff,^†^‡ Amit Meller,^‡ and Hervé Isambert*^†

Physico-chimie Curie, CNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Section de Recherche, 11 rue P. & M. Curie, 75005 Paris, France, and Rowland Institute at Harvard, Harvard University, 100 Edwin H. Land Boulevard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

Nano Lett., 2006, 6 (1), pp 101–104

DOI: 10.1021/nl052161c

Publication Date (Web): December 1, 2005

Abstract

Existing DNA nanodevices operate at equilibrium under changes in solution composition. We propose an alternative DNA switch design that can be driven and maintained out of equlibrium, under fixed chemical conditions. Moderate cooling rate after heat denaturation drives the switch to its lowest energy conformation, while rapid cooling (>100 °C/ms) locks the molecule in a unique alternative conformation that is retained over weeks at room temperature. This reversible process is probed using fluorescent energy transfer. DNA switches operating out of equilibrium should be more amenable to nanotechnology applications and scalable integration.

View: Full Text HTML | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links