Design, Fabrication, and Applications of DNA Nanomachines - DNA Nanotechnology: From Structure to Function - page 240

Fig. 11.13 ( a ) Schematic graph of DNA-templated synthesis of functional oligomers of arbitrary
length through strand displacement mechanism (Reproduced from Ref. [ 80 ] by permission of
John Wiley & Sons Ltd). ( b ) DNA-templated multistep synthesis of a triamide product. All steps
take place in a single solution under one set of reaction conditions without external intervention
(Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Ref. [ 82 ], copyright 2010) ( c ) An array
of tweezers bearing -COOH and -NH 2 groups for amide bond coupling reactions (Reprinted with
permission from Ref. [ 83 ]. Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society)
or heteropolymers using this strategy, through which a number of compounds have
already been synthesized [ 79 ].
The combination of DNA mechanical devices with DTS is an interesting and
challenging idea, which would result in a “molecular assembly line” or an artificial
“translation machinery.” So far a few attempts have been reported on this subject.
Two similar examples are based on the same principle of DNA-templated sequential
synthesis of ordered functional oligomers by multiple strand displacement systems
that provide the same reaction environment at each step, as reported by the groups
of Turberfield, O'Relly, and Liu [ 80 , 81 ]. The general mechanism is depicted
in Fig. 11.13 a. Each DNA adapter contains a functional 5 0 or 3 0 end and an
oligonucleotide sequence with a toehold for strand displacement. Hybridization
brings reactive chemical groups into close proximity allowing chemical group