The effect of long-term ambient storage on the morphology of adhered DNA origami

DNA origami has the potential to fabricate nanotechnologies from nano-photonics to nano-electronics. To position this approach as a technique to replace conventional fabrication methods the stability of the structures needs to be well understood under a vast array of working conditions. Literature to date has highlighted the unexpected stability of DNA origami structures to a diverse range of conditions from extremes of temperature to differing chemical environments. A temporal ambient study of adhered DNA origami has not been undertaken in previous work, and this condition may become the most utilised state of devices crafted from DNA origami. The study presented in this paper aims to investigate the stability of adhered DNA origami, left unattended under ambient conditions over a two year period, intermittently measuring the shape of the adhered DNA origami. We found that rectangular DNA origami adhered to a mica substrate showed no significant changes in length, width and height measurements over a 2 year period. This stability without external environmental controls will be a key asset in the promotion of DNA origami for replacing well established nano-fabrication methods.