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Photosynthetic organisms organize discrete light‐harvesting complexes into large‐scale networks to facilitate efficient light collection and utilization. Inspired by nature, herein, synthetic DNA templates were used to direct the formation of dye aggregates with a cyanine dye, K21, into discrete branched photonic complexes, and two‐dimensional (2D) excitonic networks. The DNA templates ranged from four‐arm DNA tiles, ≈10 nm in each arm, to 2D wireframe DNA origami nanostructures with different geometries and varying dimensions up to 100×100 nm. These DNA‐templated dye aggregates presented strongly coupled spectral features and delocalized exciton characteristics, enabling efficient photon collection and energy transfer. Compared to the discrete branched photonic systems templated on individual DNA tiles, the interconnected excitonic networks showed approximately a 2‐fold increase in energy transfer efficiency. This bottom‐up assembly strategy paves the way to create 2D excitonic systems with complex geometries and engineered energy pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by efficient biomolecular reactions in the cell, versatile DNA nanostructures have been explored for manipulating the spatial position and regulating reactions at the molecular level. Spatially controlled arrangement of molecules on the artificial scaffolds generally leads to enhanced reaction activities. Especially, the rich toolset of dynamic DNA nanostructures provides a potential route towards more sophisticated and vigorous regulation of molecular reactions. Herein, a reconfigurable DNA origami domino array (DODA) as a dynamic scaffold was adopted in this work for temporal‐controlled and switchable molecular cascade reactions. Dynamic regulation of the assembly of G‐quadruplex, hybridization of parallel‐stranded duplex and assembly of binary DNAzyme were demonstrated. Molecular cascade reactions on the triggered reconfiguration of DODAs were realized, resulting in more complex, dynamic, and switchable control over the reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA origami enables the manipulation of objects at nanoscale, and demonstrates unprecedented versatility for fabricating both static and dynamic nanostructures. In this work, we introduce a new strategy for transferring modular reconfigurable DNA nanostructures from two‐dimensional to three‐dimensional. A 2D DNA sheet could be modularized into connected parts (e.g. two, three, and four parts in this work), which can be independently transformed between two conformations with a few DNA "trigger" strands. More interestingly, the transformation of the connected 2D modules can lead to the controlled, resettable structural conversion of a 2D sheet to a 3D architecture, due to the constraints induced by the connections between the 2D modules. This new approach can provide an efficient mean for constructing programmable, higher‐order, and complex DNA objects, as well as sophisticated dynamic substrates for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA nanostructures with programmable nanoscale patterns has been achieved in the past decades, and molecular information coding (MIC) on those designed nanostructures has gained increasing attention for information security. However, achieving steganography and cryptography synchronously on DNA nanostructures remains a challenge. Herein, we demonstrated MIC in a reconfigurable DNA origami domino array (DODA), which can reconfigure intrinsic patterns but keep the DODA outline the same for steganography. When a set of keys (DNA strands) are added, the cryptographic data can be translated into visible patterns within DODA. More complex cryptography with the ASCII code within a programmable 6×6 lattice is demonstrated to demosntrate the versatility of MIC in the DODA. Furthermore, an anti‐counterfeiting approach based on conformational transformation‐mediated toehold strand displacement reaction is designed to protect MIC from decoding and falsification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the use of a frame-guided assembly (FGA) strategy to construct cuboid and dumbbell-shaped hetero-vesicles on DNA origami nanostructure scaffolds. These are achieved by varying the design of the DNA origami scaffolds that direct the distribution of the leading hydrophobic groups (LHG). By careful selection of LHGs, different types of amphiphiles (both polymer and small-molecule surfactants) were guided to form hetero-vesicles, demonstrating the versatility of the FGA strategy and its potential to construct asymmetric and dynamic hetero-vesicle assemblies with complex DNA nano-scaffolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a parallel universe: DNA origami structures based on modified parallel double‐crossover tiles (see scheme) were constructed and a unidirectional (parallel) arrangement of the scaffold strand (gray lines) was used in the assembly of a variety of 2D and 3D DNA origami structures. This will greatly expand the diversity of DNA origami and enable their assembly into larger structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA nanostructures have shown great potential in biomedical fields. However, the immune responses, especially the activation of the cGAS‐STING signaling (A‐cGSs), induced by DNA nanostructures, remain incompletely understood. Here, the ability of various DNA nanostructures from double‐stranded DNA (dsDNA), single‐stranded tiles (SSTs) to DNA origami is investigated on A‐cGSs. Unlike natural dsDNA which triggers potent A‐cGSs, the structural interconnectivity of various DNA configurations can substantially reduce the occurrence of A‐cGSs, irrespective of their form, dimensions, and conformation. However, wireframe DNA nanostructures can activate the cGAS‐STING signaling, suggesting that decreasing A‐cGSs is dsDNA compactness‐dependent. Based on this, a reconfigurable DNA Origami Domino Array (DODA) is used to systematically interrogate how dsDNA influences the A‐cGSs and demonstrates that the length, number, and space of dsDNA array coordinately influence the activation level of cGAS‐STING signaling, realizing a regulation of innate immune response. The above data and findings enhance the understanding of how DNA nanostructures affect cellular innate immune responses and new insights into the modulation of innate immune responses by DNA nanomedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thedependence of quantum dot (QD) fluorescence emission on theproximity of 30 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was studied with controlledinterparticle distances ranging from 15 to 70 nm. This was achievedby coassembling DNA-conjugated QDs and AuNPs in a 1:1 ratio at precisepositions on a triangular-shaped DNA origami platform. A profound,long-range quenching of the photoluminescence intensity of the QDswas observed. A combination of static and time-resolved fluorescencemeasurements suggests that the quenching is due to an increase inthe nonradiative decay rate of QD emission. Unlike FRET, the energytransfer is inversely proportional to the 2.7th power of the distancebetween nanoparticles with half quenching at ∼28 nm. This long-rangequenching phenomena may be useful for developing extended spectroscopicrulers in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]