posted on 2024-01-26, 23:10authored byQinyi Lu, Yang Xu, Erik Poppleton, Kun Zhou, Petr Sulc, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Yonggang Ke
The development of
methods to synthesize artificial protein complexes
with precisely controlled configurations will enable diverse biological
and medical applications. Using DNA to link proteins provides programmability
that can be difficult to achieve with other methods. Here, we use
DNA origami as an “assembler” to guide the linking
of protein–DNA conjugates using a series of oligonucleotide
hybridization and displacement operations. We constructed several
isomeric protein nanostructures, including a dimer, two types of trimer
structures, and three types of tetramer assemblies, on a DNA origami
platform by using a C3-symmetric building block composed of a protein
trimer modified with DNA handles. Our approach expands the scope for
the precise assembly of protein-based nanostructures and will enable
the formulation of functional protein complexes with stoichiometric
and geometric control.