posted on 2021-03-18, 12:35authored byRoger Rubio-Sánchez, Simone Eizagirre Barker, Michal Walczak, Pietro Cicuta, Lorenzo Di Michele
Cell membranes regulate
the distribution of biological machinery
between phase-separated lipid domains to facilitate key processes
including signaling and transport, which are among the life-like functionalities
that bottom-up synthetic biology aims to replicate in artificial-cellular
systems. Here, we introduce a modular approach to program partitioning
of amphiphilic DNA nanostructures in coexisting lipid domains. Exploiting
the tendency of different hydrophobic “anchors” to enrich
different phases, we modulate the lateral distribution of our devices
by rationally combining hydrophobes and by changing nanostructure
size and topology. We demonstrate the functionality of our strategy
with a bioinspired DNA architecture, which dynamically undergoes ligand-induced
reconfiguration to mediate cargo transport between domains via lateral
redistribution. Our findings pave the way to next-generation biomimetic
platforms for sensing, transduction, and communication in synthetic
cellular systems.