Studies on the Synergistic Effect of Tandem Semi-Stable Complementary Domains on Sequence-Defined DNA Block Copolymers

Tandem semi-stable complementary domains play an important role in life, while the role of these domains in the folding process of nucleic acid molecules has not been systematically studied. Here, we designed a clean model system by synthesizing sequence-defined DNA-OEG copolymers composed of ssDNA fragments with palindromic sequences and orthogonal oligo(tetraethylene glycol) (OEG) linkers. By altering the lengths of DNA units (6-12 nt) and OEG linkers (Xn = 0-4) separately, we systematically studied how stabilities of tandem complementary domains and connecting flexibilities affect the assembly topology. Combining experimental methods and coarse-grained molecular simulation analysis, distributions of multiple assembled conformations (mainly monomers, dimers, and clusters) were characterized. Both results indicated that tandem semi-stable complementary domains tend to form homogeneous closed circular dimers instead of larger clusters due to the synergistic enhancement effect, and the distributions of each conformation highly depend on flexibilities.