Description

Specially designed DNA nanostructures (in this case “seeds”) can quick-start the growth of DNA nanotubes, which grow to around five to ten microns long. Depicted here are seeds that each grow two different kinds of nanotubes which glow different colors under different wavelengths of light.

This figure was created by imaging a sample of seeded nanotubes under blue and green light. The two grayscale images were then colorized blue and red, respectively,  and overlaid. Each bi-colored tube in this image is the result of a DNA seed successfully nucleating the growth of a different type of DNA nanotube from each end.