Wenxing Wang

Alternating-electric-field-enhanced reversible switching of DNA nanocontainers with pH

Macroscopically realizable applications of DNA-based molecular devices require individual molecules to cooperate with each other. However, molecular crowding usually introduces disorder to the system, thus jeopardizing the molecular cooperation and slowing down their functional performance dramatically. A challenge remaining in this field is to obtain both smarter response and better cooperation simultaneously. Here, we report a swift-switching DNA nanodevice that is enhanced by an alternating electric field. The device, self-assembled from folded four-stranded DNA motifs, can robustly switch between closed and open states in smart response to pH stimulus, of which the closed state forms a nanometer-height container that is impermeable to small molecules. This character was used to directly and non-specifically catch and release small molecules emulating mechanical hand in a controllable way. The alternating electric field was used to accelerate molecular cooperative motion during the device switching, which in turn shortened the closing time remarkably to thirty seconds.

Photo-pH dually modulated fluorescence switch based on DNA spatial nanodevice.

In this paper, we describe our strategy on the design, construction, and characterization of a novel molecular device. By integrating a photoregulated fluorescent switch and a DNA-based nanomachine, the distance-dependent FRET process between fluorescein and photochromic moieties can be further modulated by the spatial output of a unique proton-driven DNA manomachine. This device could be reversibly switched in a reliable manner, and the fluorescence variation behavior, exhibited by this dually modulated fluorescence switch, can also mimic the function of a Boolean logic operation.

DNA-templated CMV viral capsid proteins assemble into nanotubes

This communication describes the in vitro assembly of genetically recombinant Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV) viral capsid proteins (CPs) into biological nanotubes, several micrometres long yet with a diameter of only approximately 17 nm, triggered by double-stranded DNAs of different lengths.