3D self-replication of DNA nanostructures

Self-replication is a natural process that can generate materials and pass along information. We have seen several examples of artificial self-replication in which the template assembles, organizes and directs formation of the target nanostructure. However, the self-assembly procedure generally requires an assembly space of higher dimensionality than that of the template. This makes it challenging to template and replicate a 3D object. Here, we report the direct self-replication of a 3D object. First, we fabricate a three face cube corner as our template. The replication proceeds by self-assembling three daughter origami tiles to three edges of the cube corner. DNA single strands on each cube face and daughter tile hybridize to fold the tiles inward and complete the cubic box. The daughter tiles are then cross-linked into a new cube corner. Heating releases the two complementary cube corners. This method provides a general approach for conducting high-order self-replication by organizing the materials via folding. Considering that the 3D DNA nanostructure is a functional platform, this type of 3D self-replication can produce new materials, such as chiral plasmonic nanomaterials, by passing the steric information through successive generations.