Membrane Sculpting By Curved DNA Origami Scaffolds

Membrane sculpting and transformation is essential for many cellular functions, thus being largely regulated
by self-assembling and self-organizing protein coats. Their functionality is often encoded by particular
spatial structures. Prominent examples are BAR domain proteins, the 'banana-like' shapes of which are thought
to aid scaffolding and membrane tubulation. To elucidate whether 3D structure can be uncoupled from other
functional features of complex scaffolding proteins, we hereby develop curved DNA origami in various shapes
and stacking features, following the presumable design features of BAR proteins, and characterize their
ability for membrane binding and transformation. We show that dependent on curvature, membrane affinity and
surface density, DNA origami coats can indeed reproduce the activity of membrane-sculpting proteins such as
BAR, suggesting exciting perspectives for using them in bottom-up approaches towards minimal biomimetic
cellular machineries.
 

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