A full house of papers combining DNA with other biomolecules to stabilise, direct and monitor assembly

Coating and Stabilization of Liposomes by Clathrin-Inspired DNA Self-Assembly 
doi:10.1021/acsnano.9b09453

Assembling a DNA triskelion array layer on liposomes stabilized the membrane while keeping the fluidic nature of the lipid molecules. The vesicle did not rupture on the mica surface an nor was it dissolved by adding triton-X 100 detergent.


Peptide Assembly Directed and Quantified Using Megadalton DNA Nanostructures 
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b04251

Sequence-structure relationships are sufficiently well understood for alpha-helical polypeptides to enable bottom-up design of simple alpha helix complexes. Two halves of a heterodimeric peptide were each tethered to large DNA nanostructures. The DNA nanostructures could be clearly differentiated with TEM. The peptide sequences were intentionally designed with a hydrophobic seam along which two alpha-helices could form a bond, bringing together two DNA nanostructures. To prevent DNA sticking to the peptide complexes, the sequences of peptides were chosen to be charge neutral at pH 7. Multiple peptide halves can be attached to each DNA nanostructure, altering the valency of the alpha helix bonding interaction. The authors measure the Kd disassociation constant for the peptide interactions using CD melting and by counting samples using TEM. This semi-quantitative technique is a first step toward the creation of complex rationally-designed peptide-oligonucleotide nanostructures but is not the most promising route toward measuring peptide interactions.


Directed Energy Transfer through DNA-Templated J-Aggregates
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.9b00043

DNA photonic wires are DNA duplexes labelled with fluorophores that are able to transfer optical excitation through long distances by FRET interactions. In Nature, optical excitation transference is usually achieved by dye clusters templated over polymeric chains, such as proteins. Cyanine dyes are able to produce such clusters by stacking their aromatic groups together.

In the present paper, the authors template the formation of dye clusters, out of the fluorophore pseudoisocyanine, over a DNA duplex of poly(A)-poly(T).The DNA scaffold is able to produce a continuous cyanine aggregate across 48 base pairs. The optical transfer of the continuous cyanine cluster is compared with a DNA scaffold that produces a gap in the cluster. A single base pair gap in the cluster results in a sensible decrease of the optical transference efficiency, remarking the importance of the continuous templating.