Probing the mechanical properties of DNA nanostructures with metadynamics
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Published version
Supporting information
Author(s)
Kaufhold, Will T
Pfeifer, Wolfgang
Castro, Carlos E
Di Michele, Lorenzo
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations are often used to provide feedback in the design workflow of DNA nanostructures. However, even with coarse-grained models, the convergence of distributions from unbiased simulation is slow, limiting applications to equilibrium structural properties. Given the increasing interest in dynamic, reconfigurable, and deformable devices, methods that enable efficient quantification of large ranges of motion, conformational transitions, and mechanical deformation are critically needed. Metadynamics is an automated biasing technique that enables the rapid acquisition of molecular conformational distributions by flattening free energy landscapes. Here we leveraged this approach to sample the free energy landscapes of DNA nanostructures whose unbiased dynamics are nonergodic, including bistable Holliday junctions and part of a bistable DNA origami structure. Taking a DNA origami-compliant joint as a case study, we further demonstrate that metadynamics can predict the mechanical response of a full DNA origami device to an applied force, showing good agreement with experiments. Our results exemplify the efficient computation of free energy landscapes and force response in DNA nanodevices, which could be applied for rapid feedback in iterative design workflows and generally facilitate the integration of simulation and experiments. Metadynamics will be particularly useful to guide the design of dynamic devices for nanorobotics, biosensing, or nanomanufacturing applications.
Date Issued
2022-06-28
Date Acceptance
2022-04-25
Citation
ACS Nano, 2022, 16 (6), pp.8784-8797
ISSN
1936-0851
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
8784
End Page
8797
Journal / Book Title
ACS Nano
Volume
16
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. This article is open access under a CC-BY Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
License URL
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
The Royal Society
The Royal Society
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35580231
Grant Number
851667
UF160152
RGF\EA\201032
Subjects
DNA nanotechnology
DNA origami
Metadynamics
Molecular dynamics
Molecular simulation
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2022-05-17