Editor’s corner Artificial DNA: PNA & XNA 2:2, 39-39; April/May/June 2011; © 2010 Landes Bioscience
Artificial DNA structures Peter E. Nielsen Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine; Faculty of Health Sciences; The Panum Institute; University of Copenhagen; Copenhagen, Denmark
DNA (and RNA) molecules can, as directed by their sequence, fold into a variety of two and three dimensional structures. Many are found in nature, most prominently exemplified by structured RNA molecules such as tRNA, ribosomal RNA, ribozymes and riboswitches, but more complex DNA structures such as triplexes, quadruplexes and three and four way junctions are also found. However, within the past couple of decades an increasing number of artificial DNA and RNA structures have been discovered and developed within DNA nanotechnology. This work was pioneered by Nadrian Seeman1 long before the scientific community “thought of” nanotechnology, and so far in its ultimate design form has resulted in DNA origami, a predetermined, designed folding of a long (natural) single stranded DNA molecule by a large number of short oligonucleotide staples.2 A large number of predominantly two dimensional structures, including nanoarrays have been reported, and very recently examples of more general three dimensional particles were presented.3 These are clearly artificial DNA structures, although nature’s own material has been used (so far). As a journal dedicated to all aspects of artificial nucleic acids we wish to include also the artificial structural aspects, and thus encourage submissions in the areas of nucleic acid nanotechnology, as well as within DNA and RNA aptamers. References 1. Chen JH, Seeman NC. Synthesis from DNA of a molecule with the connectivity of a cube. Nature 1991; 350: 631-3 2. Rothemund PW. Folding DNA to create nanoscale shapes and patterns. Nature 2006; 440: 297-302 3. Han D, Pal S, Nangreave J, Deng Z, Liu Y, Yan H. DNA origami with complex curvatures in three-dimensional space. Science 2011; 332: 342-6
*Correspondence to: Peter Nielsen; Email:
[email protected] Submitted: 6/24/11; Accepted: 6/24/11 DOI: 10.4161/ADNA.2.2.17085 www.landesbioscience.com
Artificial DNA: PNA & XNA
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