Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 29: Posters: Biopolymers \& Biomaterials

BP 29.26: Poster

Donnerstag, 17. März 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3

Mechanical measurements reveal high bending but low twisting rigidity of 3D DNA-origami — •Dominik Kauert¹, Tim Liedl², and Ralf Seidel¹ — ¹Biotechnology Center, TU Dresden — ²Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

DNA-origami is a recently developed method to design and assemble DNA nanostructures of arbitrary shape and property. The understanding of their mechanical behavior is crucial to develop a toolbox of these nanostructures for a broad range of applications. We used magnetic tweezers that support also direct torque measurements to determine the bending and torsional rigidities of DNA multi-helix bundles assembled by the origami method. In particular we investigated 4-helix bundles of 480nm and 6-helix bundles of 400nm length. To analyze the measurements Monte Carlo simulations and numerical finite-element-modeling was applied. The bending rigidity was found increased about 15-fold and 40-fold for 4-helix bundles and 6-helix bundles compared to double-strand DNA, respectively. In contrast, the torsional rigidity increased only 4-fold and 6-fold for 4-helix bundles and 6-helix bundles. We also show the importance of a rigid attachment of the multi-helical structures, necessary to effectively use their rigid properties.