| Popis: |
DNA origami is a collection of DNA strands assembled into nanometer-sized devices which have potential uses in several pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications. A major limitation in the current iterations of DNA origami machines is that the constructs have a highly specific response to nucleic acids, thus limiting the range of ligands the nanodevices can sense and respond towards. Riboswitches are a class of RNA elements that regulate mRNA through binding with a diverse range of ligands. Once a ligand is bound to the RNA, it induces a conformational change that sequesters or exposes a sequence known as the regulatory platform. Through engineering the regulatory platform to be complementary to DNA origami binding sequences, a system was devised in which a riboswitch acts as an adaptor molecule that enables the DNA origami to sense small ligands. In this study, DNA hinges were repurposed to anneal to the regulatory platform of SMK, a small SAM binding riboswitch. Through monitoring SAM binding to SMK with 3H-SAM size exclusion assays, we planned to validate the premise of this novel riboswitch-DNA origami system. SAM binding assays gave conflicting results, causing the current state of the project to be inconclusive. However, there are several optimizations that may be pursued in future studies. |
