Japanese Scientists Make DNA Strands Grow, Move and Link Into Networks Like Living Cells
Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo and Kyoto University grew long DNA strands on protein tubes and used motor proteins to move them, forming networks within minutes, a step toward materials that can build and reshape themselves.
Researchers in Japan have combined two processes that living cells use, making molecules and actively moving them, to build networks out of DNA, Institute of Science Tokyo announced. The team was led by Assistant Professor Shogo Hamada of Science Tokyo and Professor Akira Kakugo of Kyoto University.
Living systems do more than self-assemble
Artificial materials made from molecules usually rely on self-assembly, in which molecules come together on their own. Cells go further: they use energy to move components and apply forces that organize them. Techniques for growing DNA and for moving tiny objects with proteins had mostly been used separately.
Motor proteins stretched DNA into a network within minutes
The team attached DNA to tiny protein tubes called microtubules and used an enzyme to extend it into long strands. Motor proteins, which normally transport cargo inside cells, then moved the microtubules, so the DNA strands met, connected and stretched. An interconnected network formed within minutes.
Without the motor proteins or their energy source, ATP, nothing moved and no network formed, showing that active force was essential. Beyond a certain DNA growth time or microtubule density, the network’s connectivity jumped sharply rather than rising gradually.
“I see this research as a step toward new materials that can move, process information, change, and build structures on their own, and toward molecular robots and molecular computers using such materials.” — Shogo Hamada, Assistant Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo
The work is basic research in the lab. It joins other efforts to engineer biological building blocks, such as molecular threads that boosted neuron growth in lab tests.
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