Design of tailored DNA G-wire nanostructures by self-assembling of short G-rich oligonucleotides incorporating a 3’-3’ inversion of polarity site

The obtainment of tailored DNA nanostructures of known size and composition in simple and affordable ways represents one of the most important avenues in both nanotechnology and medical sciences. In the past years, several DNA strands having suitable sequences proved to be useful building blocks for the obtainment of higher-order supramolecular DNA structures, such as DNA origami and nanotubes, to be used for the construction of DNA-based nanocircuits. However, despite favorable theoretical models and some positive preliminary results, it has been established that long strings of duplex DNA adsorbed on solid surfaces show no significant charge transport. Thus, the above-mentioned DNA nanostructures are not suitable for DNA nanocircuitry. Conversely, long-range charge transport properties have been demonstrated for long G-quadruplex DNA assemblies (known as G-wires). In this communication, a new route towards the construction of short-to-long G-wire segments of known length via multimerization of G-quadruplex building blocks obtained by short G-rich ODN sequences incorporating a 3'-3' inversion of polarity site was presented.