Glycerol-Assisted DNA Self-Assembly at Low Temperatures

In preparing DNA nanostructures, thermal annealing is a common procedure to direct the proper DNA self-assembly. However, the denaturing condition is not ideal in biomolecular applications in which physiological or lower temperature is preferred. In this study, glycerol is supplemented in the reaction system for DNA self-assembly at arbitrary temperatures. The simple implementation leads to the successful generation of a variety of synthetic constructs. Notably, the glycerol-based DNA nanostructure production sets the assembly temperature to an unprecedented freezing level. The co-assembly test with guest protein from cell lysate shows a perfect compatibility of the method with the functioning of natural biomolecules and points to the emerging opportunities in molecular and cellular biology applications.