Probing the self-assembly process of amphiphilic tetrahedral DNA frameworks

Herein we utilized the thermal hysteresis method to directly probe the self-assembly process of amphiphilic DNA nanostructures, with the use of an amphiphilic tetrahedral DNA framework (am-TDF) as a model system. The analysis of the reaction rate surfaces under different ionic strengths revealed that strands of amphiphilic DNA first formed metastable micelles via an entropy-driven process, which were then enthalpically transformed into am-TDF. A label-free method was developed to directly probe the self-assembly process of amphiphilic DNA nanostructures.