Open-channel metal particle superlattices.

Although tremendous advances have been made in preparing porous crystals from molecular precursors1,2, there are no general ways of designing and making topologically diversified porous colloidal crystals over the 10-1,000 nm length scale. Control over porosity in this size range would enable the tailoring of molecular absorption and storage, separation, chemical sensing, catalytic and optical properties of such materials. Here, a universal approach for synthesizing metallic open-channel superlattices with pores of 10 to 1,000 nm from DNA-modified hollow colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) is reported. By tuning hollow NP geometry and DNA design, one can adjust crystal pore geometry (pore size and shape) and channel topology (the way in which pores are interconnected). The assembly of hollow NPs is driven by edge-to-edge rather than face-to-face DNA-DNA interactions. Two new design rules describing this assembly regime emerge from these studies and are then used to synthesize 12 open-channel superlattices with control over crystal symmetry, channel geometry and topology. The open channels can be selectively occupied by guests of the appropriate size and that are modified with complementary DNA (for example, Au NPs).

Encoding hierarchical assembly pathways of proteins with DNA.

The structural and functional diversity of materials in nature depends on the controlled assembly of discrete building blocks into complex architectures via specific, multistep, hierarchical assembly pathways. Achieving similar complexity in synthetic materials through hierarchical assembly is challenging due to difficulties with defining multiple recognition areas on synthetic building blocks and controlling the sequence through which those recognition sites direct assembly. Here, we show that we can exploit the chemical anisotropy of proteins and the programmability of DNA ligands to deliberately control the hierarchical assembly of protein-DNA materials. Through DNA sequence design, we introduce orthogonal DNA interactions with disparate interaction strengths ("strong" and "weak") onto specific geometric regions of a model protein, stable protein 1 (Sp1). We show that the spatial encoding of DNA ligands leads to highly directional assembly via strong interactions and that, by design, the first stage of assembly increases the multivalency of weak DNA-DNA interactions that give rise to an emergent second stage of assembly. Furthermore, we demonstrate that judicious DNA design not only directs assembly along a given pathway but can also direct distinct structural outcomes from a single pathway. This combination of protein surface and DNA sequence design allows us to encode the structural and chemical information necessary into building blocks to program their multistep hierarchical assembly. Our findings represent a strategy for controlling the hierarchical assembly of proteins to realize a diverse set of protein-DNA materials by design.

The emergence of valency in colloidal crystals through electron equivalents.

Colloidal crystal engineering of complex, low-symmetry architectures is challenging when isotropic building blocks are assembled. Here we describe an approach to generating such structures based upon programmable atom equivalents (nanoparticles functionalized with many DNA strands) and mobile electron equivalents (small particles functionalized with a low number of DNA strands complementary to the programmable atom equivalents). Under appropriate conditions, the spatial distribution of the electron equivalents breaks the symmetry of isotropic programmable atom equivalents, akin to the anisotropic distribution of valence electrons or coordination sites around a metal atom, leading to a set of well-defined coordination geometries and access to three new low-symmetry crystalline phases. All three phases represent the first examples of colloidal crystals, with two of them having elemental analogues (body-centred tetragonal and high-pressure gallium), while the third (triple double-gyroid structure) has no known natural equivalent. This approach enables the creation of complex, low-symmetry colloidal crystals that might find use in various technologies.

Encoding biological recognition in a bicomponent cell-membrane mimic.

Self-assembling dendrimers have facilitated the discovery of periodic and quasiperiodic arrays of supramolecular architectures and the diverse functions derived from them. Examples are liquid quasicrystals and their approximants plus helical columns and spheres, including some that disregard chirality. The same periodic and quasiperiodic arrays were subsequently found in block copolymers, surfactants, lipids, glycolipids, and other complex molecules. Here we report the discovery of lamellar and hexagonal periodic arrays on the surface of vesicles generated from sequence-defined bicomponent monodisperse oligomers containing lipid and glycolipid mimics. These vesicles, known as glycodendrimersomes, act as cell-membrane mimics with hierarchical morphologies resembling bicomponent rafts. These nanosegregated morphologies diminish sugar-sugar interactions enabling stronger binding to sugar-binding proteins than densely packed arrangements of sugars. Importantly, this provides a mechanism to encode the reactivity of sugars via their interaction with sugar-binding proteins. The observed sugar phase-separated hierarchical arrays with lamellar and hexagonal morphologies that encode biological recognition are among the most complex architectures yet discovered in soft matter. The enhanced reactivity of the sugar displays likely has applications in material science and nanomedicine, with potential to evolve into related technologies.

Redefining Protein Interfaces within Protein Single Crystals with DNA.

Proteins are exquisite nanoscale building blocks: molecularly pure, chemically addressable, and inherently selective for their evolved function. The organization of proteins into single crystals with high positional, orientational, and translational order results in materials where the location of every atom can be known. However, controlling the organization of proteins is challenging due to the myriad interactions that define protein interfaces within native single crystals. Recently, we discovered that introducing a single DNA-DNA interaction between protein surfaces leads to changes in the packing of proteins within single crystals and the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) that arise. However, modifying specific PPIs to effect deliberate changes to protein packing is an unmet challenge. In this work, we hypothesized that disrupting and replacing a highly conserved PPI with a DNA-DNA interaction would enable protein packing to be modulated by exploiting the programmability of the introduced oligonucleotides. Using concanavalin A (ConA) as a model protein, we circumvent potentially deleterious mutagenesis and exploit the selective binding of ConA toward mannose to noncovalently attach DNA to the protein surface. We show that DNA association eliminates the major PPI responsible for crystallization of native ConA, thereby allowing subtle changes to DNA design (length, complementarity, and attachment position) to program distinct changes to ConA packing, including the realization of three novel crystal structures and the deliberate expansion of ConA packing along a single crystallographic axis. These findings significantly enhance our understanding of how DNA can supersede native PPIs to program protein packing within ordered materials.

An Accelerated Modular-Orthogonal Ni-Catalyzed Methodology to Symmetric and Nonsymmetric Constitutional Isomeric AB2 to AB9 Dendrons Exhibiting Unprecedented Self-Organizing Principles.

Five libraries of natural and synthetic phenolic acids containing five AB3, ten constitutional isomeric AB2, one AB4, and one AB5 were previously synthesized and reported by our laboratory in 5 to 11 steps. They were employed to construct seven libraries of self-assembling dendrons, by divergent generational, deconstruction, and combined approaches, enabling the discovery of a diversity of supramolecular assemblies including Frank-Kasper phases, soft quasicrystals, and complex helical organizations, some undergoing deracemization in the crystal state. However, higher substitution patterns within a single dendron were not accessible. Here we report three libraries consisting of 30 symmetric and nonsymmetric constitutional isomeric phenolic acids with unprecedented sequenced patterns, including two AB2, three AB3, eight AB4, five AB5, six AB6, three AB7, two AB8, and one AB9 synthesized by accelerated modular-orthogonal Ni-catalyzed borylation and cross-coupling. A single etherification step with 4-(n-dodecyloxy)benzyl chloride transformed all these phenolic acids, of interest also for other applications, into self-assembling dendrons. Despite this synthetic simplicity, they led to a diversity of unprecedented self-organizing principles: lamellar structures of interest for biological membrane mimics, helical columnar assemblies from rigid-solid angle dendrons forming Tobacco Mosaic Virus-like assemblies, columnar organizations from adaptable-solid angle dendrons forming disordered micellar-like nonhelical columns, columns from supramolecular spheres, five body-centered cubic phases displaying supramolecular orientational memory, rarely encountered in previous libraries forming predominantly Frank-Kasper phases, and two Frank-Kasper phases. Lessons from these self-organizing principles, discovered within a single generation of self-assembling dendrons, may help elaborate design principles for complex helical and nonhelical organizations of synthetic and biological matter.

Enhanced Concanavalin†A Binding to Preorganized Mannose Nanoarrays in Glycodendrimersomes Revealed Multivalent Interactions.

The effect of the two-dimensional glycan display on glycan-lectin recognition remains poorly understood despite the importance of these interactions in a plethora of cellular processes, in (patho)physiology, as well as its potential for advanced therapeutics. Faced with this challenge we utilized glycodendrimersomes, a type of synthetic vesicles whose membrane mimics the surface of a cell and offers a means to probe the carbohydrate biological activity. These single-component vesicles were formed by the self-assembly of sequence-defined mannose-Janus dendrimers, which serve as surrogates for glycolipids. Using atomic force microscopy and molecular modeling we demonstrated that even mannose, a monosaccharide, was capable of organizing the sugar moieties into periodic nanoarrays without the need of the formation of liquid-ordered phases as assumed necessary for rafts. Kinetics studies of Concanavalin A binding revealed that those nanoarrays resulted in a new effective ligand yielding a ten-fold increase in the kinetic and thermodynamic constant of association.

Programming Fluorogenic DNA Probes for Rapid Detection of Steroids.

The ability of aptamers to recognize a variety of different molecules has fueled their emergence as recognition agents to probe complex media and cells. Many detection strategies require aptamer binding to its target to result in a dramatic change in structure, typically from an unfolded to a folded state. Here, we report a strategy based on forced intercalation (FIT) that increases the scope of aptamer recognition by transducing subtle changes in aptamer structures into fluorescent readouts. By screening a library of green-fluorescent FIT-aptamers whose design is guided by computational modeling, we could identify hits that sense steroids like dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) down to 1.3 µM with no loss in binding affinity compared to the unmodified aptamer. This enabled us to study DHEAS in clinical serum samples with several advantages over gold standard methods, including rapid readout (<30 min), simple instrumentation (plate-reader), and low sample volumes (10 µL).

Monodisperse Macromolecules by Self-Interrupted Living Polymerization.

Biological macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids are monodisperse just as low-molar-mass organic compounds are. However, synthetic macromolecules contain mixtures of different chain lengths, the most uniform being generated by living polymerizations, which exhibit a maximum of 1-3% of chains with the desired length. Monodisperse natural and synthetic oligomers can be obtained in low quantities by tedious, multistep iterative methods. Here we report a methodology to synthesize monodisperse synthetic macromolecules by self-interrupted living polymerization. This methodology relies on a concept that combines supramolecular and macromolecular chemistry and differs from the conventional reactivity principles employed in the synthesis of polymers for over 100 years.

Extraordinary Acceleration of Cogwheel Helical Self-Organization of Dendronized Perylene Bisimides by the Dendron Sequence Encoding Their Tertiary Structure.

The cogwheel model of hierarchical self-organization provides a route to highly ordered crystalline helical columnar hexagonal arrays of perylene bisimides (PBIs) conjugated to (3,4,5)-dimethyloctyl (racemic dm8*, r) minidendrons. Cogwheel PBIs assemble with identical structural order irrespective of molecular chirality to generate helical columns jacketed with an alkyl coat with length equal to half the helical pitch, exhibiting helical deracemization in the crystal state. These assemblies were accessible only via annealing or cooling and reheating at 1 °C/min. Recently it was discovered that hybrid rr8 sequence-defined dendrons with r and linear n-octyl (8) chains enabled the formation of the cogwheel phase at 10 °C/min upon heating but not cooling. Here we report four libraries of hybrid PBIs with sequence-defined dendrons containing r and n-alkyl (CnH2n+1) chains with n = 6, 7, 9, and 10. Structural analysis of these libraries by fiber X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry reveals that the 9r9 sequence enables an extraordinary acceleration of cogwheel assembly at rates of up to 50 °C/min on heating and cooling, providing, to the best of our knowledge, the fastest crystallizing supramolecular or covalent macromolecule known. Solid-state NMR studies help to elucidate this unexpected and unprecedented extraordinary acceleration of hierarchical self-organization, which arises from a combination of crystal packing of the ideal tertiary structure and alkyl chain dynamics. This general model raises questions about the use of achiral motifs to achieve high structural order in chiral systems and the need for disorder to create order in complex biological and bioinspired synthetic systems.

Supramolecular Spheres Self-Assembled from Conical Dendrons Are Chiral.

Frank-Kasper phases and liquid quasicrystals self-organize from supramolecular spheres of dendrimers, block copolymers, surfactants and other self-assembling molecules. These spheres are expected to be achiral due to their isotropic shape. Nevertheless, supramolecular spheres from short helical stacks of crown-like dendrimers self-organize a Pm3̅ n cubic (Frank-Kasper A15) phase which exhibits chirality on the macroscopic scale. However, the chirality of classic isotropic supramolecular micellar-like spheres, generated from conical dendrons, is unknown. Here we report a library of second and third generation biphenylpropyl dendrons with chiral groups at their apex that produces single-handed chiral supramolecular spheres. Up to 480 conical dendrons self-assemble to form micellar-like spheres, with a molar mass of up to 1.1 × 106 g/mol, that self-organize into a Pm3̅ n phase with chirality detectable on the macroscopic scale. This demonstration of chirality in micellar-like spheres of a Frank-Kasper phase raises the fundamental question whether micellar-like spheres forming 3D phases generated from other soft matter such as block copolymers, surfactants, and other molecules are chiral.

Sequence-Defined Dendrons Dictate Supramolecular Cogwheel Assembly of Dendronized Perylene Bisimides.

A dendronized perylene bisimide (PBI) that self-organizes into hexagonal arrays of supramolecular double helices with identical single-crystal-like order that disregards chirality was recently reported. A cogwheel model of self-assembly that explains this process was proposed. Accessing the highly ordered cogwheel phase required very slow heating and cooling or extended periods of annealing. Analogous PBIs with linear alkyl chains did not exhibit the cogwheel assembly. Here a library of sequence-defined dendrons containing all possible compositions of linear and racemic alkyl chains was employed to construct self-assembling PBIs. Thermal and structural analysis of their assemblies by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fiber X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the incorporation of n-alkyl chains accelerates the formation of the high order cogwheel phase, rendering the previously invisible phase accessible under standard heating and cooling rates. Small changes to the primary structure, as constitutional isomerism, result in significant changes to macroscopic properties such as melting of the periodic array. This study demonstrated how changes to the sequence-defined primary structure, including the relocation of methyl groups between two constitutional isomers, dictate tertiary and quaternary structure in hierarchical assemblies. This led to the discovery of a sequence that self-organizes the cogwheel assembly much faster than even the corresponding homochiral compounds and demonstrated that defined-sequence, which has long been recognized as a determinant for the complex structure of biomacromolecules including proteins and nucleic acids, plays the same role also in supramolecular synthetic systems.

Dendronized Poly(2-oxazoline) Displays within only Five Monomer Repeat Units Liquid Quasicrystal, A15 and σ Frank-Kasper Phases.

Liquid quasicrystals (LQC) have been discovered in self-assembling benzyl ether, biphenylmethyl ether, phenylpropyl ether, biphenylpropyl ether and some of their hybrid dendrons and subsequently in block copolymers, surfactants and other assemblies. These quasiperiodic arrays, which lack long-range translational periodicity, are approximated by two Frank-Kasper periodic arrays, Pm3̅ n cubic (Frank-Kasper A15) and P42/ mnm tetragonal (Frank-Kasper σ), which have been discovered in complex soft matter in the same order and compounds. Poly(2-oxazoline)s dendronized with (3,4) nG1 minidendrons (where n denotes an alkyl chain, C nH2 n+1) self-organize into the Pm3̅ n cubic phase ( n = 14 and 15) and, as reported recently, the P42/ mnm tetragonal phase ( n = 16). However, no LQC of a poly(2-oxazoline) is yet known. Here we report the synthesis, structural and retrostructural analysis of a dendronized poly(2-oxazoline) with n = 17 which self-organizes not only into the LQC but also in the above two Frank-Kasper approximants. All three phases are observed from the same polymer within a very narrow range of degree of polymerization that corresponds to only five monomer repeat units (5 ≤ DP ≤ 10). The formation of the Pm3̅ n cubic, P42/ mnm tetragonal and LQC phases from a single polymer chain within such a narrow range of DP raises the questions of how and why each of these phases is self-organized. This system may provide a model for theoretical investigations into the self-organization of soft matter into Frank-Kasper and related periodic and quasiperiodic arrays.

Hierarchical Self-Organization of Chiral Columns from Chiral Supramolecular Spheres.

The supramolecular column is an archetypal architecture in the field of periodic liquid crystalline and crystalline arrays. Columns are generated via self-assembly, coassembly, and polymerization of monomers containing molecules shaped as discs, tapered, twin- and Janus-tapered, crowns, hat-shaped crowns, and fragments thereof. These supramolecular columns can be helical and therefore exhibit chirality. In contrast, spheres represent a fundamentally distinct architecture, generated from conical and crown-like molecules, which self-organize into body-centered cubic, Pm3̅ n cubic (also known as Frank-Kasper A15), and tetragonal (also known as Frank-Kasper σ) phases. Supramolecular spherical aggregates are not known to further assemble into a columnar architecture, except as an intermediate state between a columnar periodic array and a cubic phase. In the present work, a chiral dendronized cyclotetraveratrylene (CTTV) derivative is demonstrated to self-organize into a supramolecular column unexpectedly constructed from supramolecular spheres, with no subsequent transition to a cubic phase. Structural and retrostructural analysis using a combination of differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), molecular modeling, and simulation of XRD patterns reveals that this CTTV derivative, which is functionalized with eight chiral first-generation minidendrons, self-organizes via a column-from-spheres model. The transition from column to column-from-spheres was monitored by circular dichroism spectroscopy, which demonstrated that both the supramolecular column and supramolecular spheres are chiral. This column-from-spheres model, which unites two fundamentally distinct self-assembled architectures, provides a new mechanism to self-organize supramolecular columnar architectures.

Hierarchical Self-Organization of Perylene Bisimides into Supramolecular Spheres and Periodic Arrays Thereof.

Perylene bisimide derivatives (PBIs) are known to form only columnar or lamellar assemblies. There is no known example of a PBI self-assembling into a supramolecular sphere. Therefore, periodic and quasiperiodic arrays generated from spherical assemblies produced from PBIs are also not known. Here, a PBI functionalized at its imide groups with a second generation self-assembling dendron is reported to self-assemble into supramolecular spheres. These spheres self-organize in a body-centered cubic (BCC) periodic array, rarely encountered for self-assembling dendrons but often encountered in block copolymers. These supramolecular spheres also assemble into a columnar hexagonal array in which the supramolecular columns are unexpectedly and unprecedentedly made from spheres. At lower temperature, two additional columnar hexagonal phases consisting of symmetric and asymmetric tetrameric crowns of PBI are observed. Structural and retrostructural analysis via X-ray diffraction (XRD), molecular modeling, molecular simulation, and solid state NMR suggests that inversion of the symmetric tetrameric crowns at high temperature mediates their transformation into supramolecular spheres. The tetrameric crowns of PBIs are able to form an isotropic sphere in the cubic phase due to rapid molecular motion at high temperature, unobservable by XRD but demonstrated by solid state NMR studies. This mechanism of hierarchical self-organization of PBI into supramolecular spheres is most probably general and can be applied to other related planar molecules to generate new functions.

Complex columnar hexagonal polymorphism in supramolecular assemblies of a semifluorinated electron-accepting naphthalene bisimide.

Simple synthetic methods for a strongly electron-accepting naphthalene bisimide (NBI) derivative functionalized with a new environmentally friendly chiral racemic semifluorinated alkyl group and with AB3 minidendrons containing the same semifluorinated group are reported. The semifluorinated dendron was attached to the imide groups of the NBI via one, two, and three (m = 1, 2, 3) methylenic units. The NBI-containing semifluorinated groups and the dendronized NBI with m = 1 and 2 self-organize into lamellar crystals. The dendronized NBI with m = 3 self-assembles into an unprecedentedly complex and ordered column that self-organizes in a columnar hexagonal periodic array. This array undergoes a continuous transition to a columnar hexagonal superlattice that does not display a first-order phase transition during analysis by differential scanning calorimetry at heating and cooling rates of 10 and 1 °C/min. These complex columnar hexagonal periodic arrays with intramolecular order could be elucidated only by a combination of powder and fiber X-ray diffraction studies and solid-state NMR experiments. The lamellar crystals self-organized from m = 1 and the two highly ordered columnar hexagonal periodic arrays of m = 3 are assembled via thermodynamically controlled processes. Since strongly electron-accepting derivatives are of great interest to replace fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaics and for other supramolecular electronic materials, the multitechnique structural analysis methodology elaborated here must be taken into consideration in all related studies.

Increasing 3D Supramolecular Order by Decreasing Molecular Order. A Comparative Study of Helical Assemblies of Dendronized Nonchlorinated and Tetrachlorinated Perylene Bisimides.

A nonplanar, twisted, and flexible tetrachlorinated perylene bisimide (Cl4PBI) was functionalized with two AB3 minidendrons containing hydrogenated or semifluorinated dodecyl groups. The hydrogenated dendron was attached to the imide groups of Cl4PBI via m = 0, 1, and 2 methylenic units, whereas the dendron containing semifluorinated groups was attached via m = 3 or a di(ethylene oxide) linker (m = 2EO). The supramolecular structures of these compounds, determined by a combination of differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and solid-state NMR, were compared with those of nonchlorinated planar and rigid PBI reported previously, which demonstrated the thermodynamically controlled formation of 2D periodic arrays at high temperatures and 3D arrays at low temperatures. The molecularly less ordered Cl4PBI containing hydrogenated dendrons self-organize into exclusively 3D crystalline periodic arrays under thermodynamic control for m = 0 and 2, while the more highly molecularly ordered PBI produced less stable and ordered 3D crystals and also 2D assemblies. This induction of a higher degree of 3D order in supramolecular assemblies of the less well-ordered molecular building blocks was unanticipated. The semifluorinated dendronized Cl4PBI with m = 3 formed a 2D columnar hexagonal array under kinetic control, whereas the compound with m = 2EO formed an unusual 2D honeycomb-like hexagonal phase under thermodynamic control. These Cl4PBI compounds provide a new route to stable crystalline assemblies via thermodynamic control at lower temperatures than previously obtained with PBI, thus generating 3D order in an accessible range of temperature of interest for structural analysis and for technological applications.

A halogen-bonding bis-triazolium rotaxane for halide-selective anion recognition.

A systematic study on the anion-binding properties of acyclic halogen- and hydrogen-bonding bis-triazolium carbazole receptors is described. The halide-binding potency of halogen-bonding bis-iodotriazolium carbazole receptors was found to be far superior to their hydrogen-bonding bis-triazolium-based analogues. This led to the synthesis of a mixed halogen- and hydrogen-bonding rotaxane host containing a bis-iodotriazolium carbazole axle component. The rotaxane's anion recognition properties, determined by (1)H NMR titration experiments in a competitive aqueous solvent mixture, demonstrated the preorganised halogen-bonding interlocked host cavity to be halide-selective, with a strong binding affinity for bromide.

Homochiral columns constructed by chiral self-sorting during supramolecular helical organization of hat-shaped molecules.

A library of dendronized cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) crowns substituted with chiral, racemic, or achiral peripheral alkyl chains, including enantiopure R and S branched alkyls, "racemic by mixture", "racemic by synthesis", n-octyl, and n-dodecyl groups was synthesized. In solvophobic solvents and in bulk they self-assemble in helical columns. Their solution and bulk shape-persistent supramolecular structures were determined by a complementary combination of circular dichroism (CD) and UV in solution and thin film, microspot CD in thin film, differential scanning calorimetry combined with fiber X-ray diffraction, computer simulation, and molecular models. In solution, self-assembly via a cooperative mechanism generates single-handed columns from enantiopure CTVs and mixtures of right- and left-handed columns from racemic by mixture, racemic by synthesis, other combinations of R and S, and even from achiral compounds. In bulk state all supramolecular columns form a 3D hexagonal crystalline phase, Φ(h)(k) (P63 symmetry), that can be obtained only from single-handed columns and a columnar hexagonal 2D liquid crystal, Φ(h). The highest order Φ(h)(k) consists of enantiopure single-handed columns that are slightly distorted 12-fold triple helices. The "hat-shaped" dendronized CTV assembles in bent-branch pine-tree columns that allow interdigitation of alkyl groups in adjacent columns regardless of their direction. Enantiomerically rich, racemic, and achiral compositions undergo deracemization in the crystal state by transfer of the transient disc-like conformer of dendronized CTV from column to column during crown inversion. Solid state NMR experiments identified motional processes that allow such transfer. This unprecedented supramolecular chiral self-sorting will impact the creation of functions in complex systems.

Reversible strain-promoted DNA polymerization.

Molecular strain can be introduced to influence the outcome of chemical reactions. Once a thermodynamic product is formed, however, reversing the course of a strain-promoted reaction is challenging. Here, a reversible, strain-promoted polymerization in cyclic DNA is reported. The use of nonhybridizing, single-stranded spacers as short as a single nucleotide in length can promote DNA cyclization. Molecular strain is generated by duplexing the spacers, leading to ring opening and subsequent polymerization. Then, removal of the strain-generating duplexers triggers depolymerization and cyclic dimer recovery via enthalpy-driven cyclization and entropy-mediated ring contraction. This reversibility is retained even when a protein is conjugated to the DNA strands, and the architecture of the protein assemblies can be modulated between bivalent and polyvalent states. This work underscores the utility of using DNA not only as a programmable ligand for assembly but also as a route to access restorable bonds, thus providing a molecular basis for DNA-based materials with shape-memory, self-healing, and stimuli-responsive properties.