Gene editing is an important genetic engineering technique that enables gene manipulation at the molecular level. It mainly relies on engineered nucleases of biological origin, whose precise functions cannot be replicated in any currently known abiotic artificial material. Here, we show that chiral cysteine-modified CdTe nanoparticles can specifically recognize and, following photonic excitation, cut at the restriction site GAT′ATC (′ indicates the cut site) in double-stranded DNA exceeding 90 base pairs, mimicking a restriction endonuclease. Although photoinduced reactive oxygen species are found to be responsible for the cleavage activity, the sequence selectivity arises from the affinity between cysteine and the conformation of the specific DNA sequence, as confirmed by quantum-chemical calculations. In addition, we demonstrate non-enzymatic sequence-specific DNA incision in living cells and in vivo using these CdTe nanoparticles, which may help in the design of abiotic materials for gene editing and other biological applications.

基因编辑是一项重要的基因工程技术，可在分子水平上进行基因操作。它主要依赖于生物来源的工程核酸酶，其精确功能无法在任何当前已知的非生物人工材料中复制。在这里，我们显示手性半胱氨酸修饰的CdTe纳米颗粒可以特异性识别并在光子激发后在超过90个碱基对的双链DNA中的限制性酶切位点GAT'ATC（'表示切割位点）处进行切割，模仿了限制性内切核酸酶。尽管发现光诱导的活性氧物种负责切割活性，但是序列选择性是由半胱氨酸之间的亲和力和特定DNA序列的构象产生的，如通过量子化学计算所证实的。此外，