image: These are curved 2-D DNA nanostructures with various structural features. (Upper panels) Schematic designs. (Middle panels) Zoom-in AFM images with 50-nm scale bars. (Lower panels) Zoomout AFM images with 100-nm scale bars. (A) Nine-layer concentric ring structure. Only 3,600 of 7,249 nucleotides of the scaffold strand are used in this structure, and the remaining single-stranded loop is left unpaired, attached to the outer ring (often visible due to formation of secondary structures). (B) Eleven-layer modified concentric square frame structure with rounded outer corners and sharp inner corners. This image relates to an article that appeared in the April 15, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dongran Han at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., was titled, "DNA Origami with Complex Curvatures in Three-Dimensional Space." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of <i>Science</i>/AAAS