All-atom molecular dynamics of film supported flat-shaped DNA origami in water

Abstract

Here we present a novel technique that utilizes a supporting inorganic film for MD simulations of flat-shaped DNA origami structures in explicit solvent. The number of atoms is typically over 16 million including water molecules. By utilizing a GPU capable simulation engine, we have addressed conformational changes of a DNA origami structure under normal ionic strength and deionized water conditions up to the order of one nanosecond simulation time. Our results demonstrate that DNA origami configuration undergoes a continual growth in the absence of cations, while it is not the case for normal ionic strength. Statistical analysis of helix forms for these DNA origami structures reveals that not only cations but also water permittivity contributed to the maintenance of B-DNA helix form during the stretching motion. These results will provide key features in designing molecular robots as assembly of DNA origami structural components such as scaffolds, connectors and channels.