DNA condensation in one dimension

DNA can be programmed to assemble into a variety of shapes and patterns on the nanoscale and can act as a template for hybrid nanostructures such as conducting wires, protein arrays and field-effect transistors. Current DNA nanostructures are typically in the sub-micrometre range, limited by the sequence space and length of the assembled strands. Here we show that on a patterned biochip, DNA chains collapse into one-dimensional (1D) fibres that are 20 nm wide and around 70 µm long, each comprising approximately 35 co-aligned chains at its cross-section. Electron beam writing on a photocleavable monolayer was used to immobilize and pattern the DNA molecules, which condense into 1D bundles in the presence of spermidine. DNA condensation can propagate and split at junctions, cross gaps and create domain walls between counterpropagating fronts. This system is inherently adept at solving probabilistic problems and was used to find the possible paths through a maze and to evaluate stochastic switching circuits. This technique could be used to propagate biological or ionic signals in combination with sequence-specific DNA nanotechnology or for gene expression in cell-free DNA compartments.