Novel Classes of Photoresponsive DNA Aptamers

拟议的项目将尝试选择DNA适配子来选择在紫外光和可见光波长都具有典型光物理性质的光致变色剂。本研究选用的光致变色剂具有优异的热还原性能，因此可以专门用光子能量来处理。目前，只有少数基于RNA的适配子可用于基本光致变色分子，还没有找到进一步的应用。近年来，在选择选择性的、强结合的小分子适配子以及改进和新颖的光致变色元件方面的进展表明，为这些选定的分子选择DNA适配子的时机已经成熟。我们将同时使用捕获SELEX和更传统的固体支持方法来获得我们的适配子，让我们自己有尽可能多的机会获得好的适配子。经过截断和彻底表征后，我们将把它们应用到我们的dsDNA纳米结构中，以展示它们在仅使用不同波长的光控制元件间运动方面的适用性。这将是第一次将适配子用作DNA互锁结构中的结合元件，并将产生光可切换的DNA互锁系统，而不使用由许多AB核苷替代物组成的有争议的脚趾ROS，最明显的是在可见光区域。然而，在本提案正文中选择的DNA适配子在其他领域将有过多的潜在应用。将DNA适配子的生物相容性与修饰和新型光致变色元件的可见光波长切换相结合，将为合成生物学和光化学遗传学等领域提供新的途径。

The proposed project will attempt to select DNA aptamers for a selection of photochromes that possess exemplary photophysical properties both in ultra-violet and visible wavelengths. The photochromes chosen for this study have excellent thermal-reversionproperties so can be addressed exclusively with photonic energy. Currently, only few RNA-based aptamers are available for basic photochromic molecules and have not found further application. The advances in recent years towards the selection of selective, strong binding aptamers for small molecules and improved and novel photochromic elements suggest the time is ripe to select DNA aptamers for these selected molecules. We will use both capture SELEX and more traditional solid-support approaches in gaining our aptamers to give ourselves as much opportunity to gain good aptamers. After truncation and thorough characterisation, we will then apply them to our dsDNA nanoarchitectures to demonstrate their applicability in controlling intercomponent motion using exclusively different wavelengths of light. This will be the first time that aptamers have been employed as binding elements within DNA interlocked structures and will engender light-switchable DNA interlocked systems without the use of arguably wasteful toehold ROs composed of a number of AB nucleoside surrogates, most notably in the visible-light region. However, the DNA aptamers selected within the main body of this proposal will have a plethora of potential applications in other fields. Fields such as those of synthetic biology and optochemical genetics will be offered new avenues by combining the putative biological compatibility of DNA aptamers and the visible light wavelength-switching of modified and novel photochromic elements.