Template-Assisted Assembly of DNA Nanostructures from Branched Oligonucleotides

Abstract We have proposed previously a template-assisted method for 3D assembly of nucleic acid nanostructures. The method involved a branched oligonucleotide as a template and a building block, which incorporates non-nucleotidic linkers, in particular, branching foci connecting two or three oligonucleotide chains. In this work, we have attempted the synthesis of branched oligonucleotide templates for the assembly of a DNA tetrahedron and a DNA cube, a branched oligonucleotide building block (“starlet”), and studied the assembly of a DNA tetrahedron.