Reorganization of Self-Assembled DNA-Based Polymers Using Orthogonally Addressable Building Blocks

Taking advantage of the addressability and programmability of DNA/DNA non-covalent interactions we report here the rational design of orthogonal DNA-based addressable tiles that self-assemble into polymer-like structures that can be reconfigured and reorganized by external inputs. The different tiles share the same 5-nucleotide sticky ends responsible for self-assembly but are rationally designed to contain a specific regulator-binding domain that can be orthogonally targeted by different DNA regulator strands (activators and inhibitors). We show that by sequentially adding specific activators and inhibitors it is possible to re-organize in a dynamic and reversible way the formed polymer-like structures to display well-defined distributions: homopolymers made of a single tile, random polymers in which different tiles are distributed randomly and block structures in which the tiles are organized in segments.