Abstract
“Wrapping” is a very important movement in nature, and it can be seen widely in things ranged from molecular sizes to ozone layer scales. We have designed a structure that can “wrap” substances by modulating stiffness of DNA tiles. The basic concept is that DNA tiles will turn into a small DNA sphere if the monomer unit is not rigid enough. In this way, a micro-sized DNA tile made from a stiff three-point-star structure is transformed into a sphere by lowering its stiffness like “wrapping”. The unit of our DNA “wrapper” was separated into two parts; stiff Y-shaped structures and joints. Y-shapes were assigned only to keep rigidity of the entire structure, and the joints were utilized as a trigger to change stiffness. By peeling off a strand from double-stranded DNA of joints, the tile is expected to deform into a sphere without losing its topological stiffness.