Nucleic acid-polymer conjugates are an attractive class of materials endowed with tunable and responsive character. Herein, we exploit the dynamic character of nucleic acids in the preparation of hybrid DNA-covalent polymers with extendable grafts by the hybridization chain reaction. Addition of DNA hairpins to an initiator DNA-dextran graft copolymer resulted in the growth of the DNA grafts as evidenced by various characterization techniques over several length scales. Additionally, aggregation of the initiator DNA-graft copolymer before the hybridization chain reaction was observed resulting in the formation of kinetically trapped aggregates several hundreds of nanometers in diameter that could be disrupted by a preheating step at 60 °C prior to extension at room temperature. Materials of increasing viscosity were rapidly formed when metastable DNA hairpins were added to the initiator DNA-dextran grafted copolymer with increasing concentration of the components in the mixture. This study shows the potential for hierarchical self-assembly of DNA-grafted polymers through the hybridization chain reaction and opens the door for biomedical applications where viscosity can be used as a readout.

中文翻译：

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通过杂交链反应从杂化DNA共价聚合物接枝。

核酸-聚合物共轭物是一类有吸引力的材料，具有可调性和响应性。在本文中，我们通过杂交链反应利用核酸的动态特性来制备具有可扩展接枝的杂化DNA共价聚合物。将DNA发夹添加到引发剂DNA-葡聚糖接枝共聚物中导致DNA接枝的生长，如通过多种表征技术在几种长度尺度上所证明的。另外，在杂交链反应之前观察到引发剂DNA-接枝共聚物的聚集，导致形成了直径为几百纳米的动力学捕获的聚集体，该聚集体可被在室温下延伸之前在60℃下的预热步骤破坏。当将亚稳的DNA发夹添加到引发剂DNA-葡聚糖接枝的共聚物中时，随着混合物中组分浓度的增加，粘度迅速增加的材料迅速形成。这项研究表明了通过杂交链反应实现DNA接枝聚合物分层自组装的潜力，并为生物医学应用打开了大门，在生物医学应用中，可以将粘度用作读数。