The assembly of peptides into membrane-spanning nanopores might be promoted by scaffolds to pre-organize the structures. Such scaffolds could enable the construction of uniform pores of various sizes and pores with controlled permutations around a central axis. Here, we show that DNA nanostructures can serve as scaffolds to arrange peptides derived from the octameric polysaccharide transporter Wza to form uniform nanopores in planar lipid bilayers. Our ring-shaped DNA scaffold is assembled from short synthetic oligonucleotides that are connected to Wza peptides through flexible linkers. When scaffolded, the Wza peptides form conducting nanopores of which only octamers are stable and of uniform conductance. Removal of the DNA scaffold by cleavage of the linkers leads to a rapid loss of the nanopores from the lipid bilayer, which shows that the scaffold is essential for their stability. The DNA scaffold also adds functionality to the nanopores by enabling reversible and permanent binding of complementary tagged oligonucleotides near the nanopore entrance.

支架可以促进肽组装成跨膜纳米孔以预先组织结构。这种支架可以构建各种尺寸的均匀孔和围绕中心轴具有受控排列的孔。在这里，我们展示了 DNA 纳米结构可以作为支架来排列源自八聚多糖转运蛋白 Wza 的肽，以在平面脂质双层中形成均匀的纳米孔。我们的环形 DNA 支架由短的合成寡核苷酸组装而成，这些寡核苷酸通过灵活的接头连接到 Wza 肽。当支架时，Wza 肽形成导电纳米孔，其中只有八聚体是稳定的并且具有均匀的电导。通过切割接头去除 DNA 支架会导致脂质双层中的纳米孔快速丢失，这表明支架对其稳定性至关重要。DNA 支架还通过使纳米孔入口附近的互补标记寡核苷酸可逆和永久结合，为纳米孔增加了功能。