Branched Kissing Loops for the Construction of Diverse RNA Homooligomeric Nanostructures

This study presents a robust homooligomeric self-assembly system based on RNA and DNA tiles that are folded from a single-strand of nucleic acid and assemble via a novel artificially designed branched kissing-loops (bKL) motif. By adjusting the geometry of individual tiles, we have constructed a total of 16 different structures that demonstrate our control over the curvature, torsion, and number of helices of assembled structures. Furthermore, bKL-based tiles can be assembled cotranscriptionally, and can be expressed in living bacterial cells.