NER: Oligonucleotide-Directed Alignment of Cytoskeletal Filaments for Nanoscale Assembly

用于纳米级组装的细胞骨架细丝的寡核苷酸定向排列目前对在亚微米尺度上操纵材料的纳米科学和纳米技术有很大的兴趣。然而，在细胞中，这是一项常规任务——细胞内货物的运输是由沿着称为微管的细胞骨架细丝移动的运动蛋白完成的。定向运动是实现的，因为微管具有结构极性，电机沿微管单向运动，不同的电机沿不同的方向运动。我们试图：(i)使用纯化的运动蛋白和微管在体外重建细胞内运输系统，（ii）使用它将定义的货物（生物或合成纳米级物体）运输到二维底物上的特定位置。为了建立具有所需方向的微管轨道，我们将利用DNA杂交的特异性和可逆性作为“分子胶”。单链DNA寡核苷酸将附着在玻璃表面的特定位点上，互补寡核苷酸将共价附着在微管上。通过制作末端具有不同DNA序列功能化的微管，并对其序列补体进行空间图谱，将研究各种微管的几何形状。这些轨迹将用于指导装载货物的马达的运动，作为构建生物分子分离或定向组装应用系统的一步。

NER: Oligonucleotide-directed alignment of cytoskeletal filaments for nanoscale assemblyThere is currently great interest in nanoscience and nanotechnology for manipulating material at submicron scales. In cells, however, this is a routine task -- the transport of intracellular cargo is carried out by motor proteins that move along cytoskeletal filaments called microtubules. Directional movement is achieved because microtubules have a structural polarity and motors move unidirectionally along them, with different motors moving in different directions. We seek to: (i) reconstruct the intracellular transport system in vitro using purified kinesin motor proteins and microtubules, and (ii) use it to transport defined cargo (biological or synthetic nanoscale objects) to specific sites on a two-dimensional substrate. To lay down microtubule tracks with desired orientations, we will take advantage of the specificity and reversibility of DNA hybridization as a "molecular glue". Single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides will be attached to defined sites on glass surfaces and complementary oligonucleotides will be covalently attached to microtubules. By making microtubules whose ends are functionalized with different DNA sequences and spatially patterning their sequence complements, a variety of microtubule geometries will be investigated. These tracks will be used to direct the motion of cargo-laden kinesin motors as a step towards building systems for biomolecular separations or directed assembly applications.