Natural Nanochemical Building Blocks: Icosahedral Virus Particles Organized by Attached Oligonucleotides

Abstract

Virus particles, like metal nanoparticles and organic polymer beads, may be induced to assemble together by virtue of duplex base pairing of attached oligonucleotide chains and to disassemble on heating with unusually sharp temperature profiles. Icosahedral virions of the type used here have the added property of being structurally known to atomic resolution, offering unique opportunities to program assembly characteristics at the level of particle structure.