Polar organic solvents accelerate the rate of DNA strand replacement reaction.

Herein, we report a novel strategy to accelerate the rate of DNA strand replacement reaction (DSRR) by polar organic solvents. DSRR plays a vital role in DNA nanotechnology but prolonged reaction time limits its further advancement. That is why it is extremely important to speed up the rate of DSRR. In this work, we introduce different polar organic solvents in both simple and complicated DSRR systems and observe that the rate constant is much more than in aqueous buffer. The rate acceleration of DSRR by polar organic solvents is very obvious and we believe that this strategy will extend the application of DNA nanotechnology in future.