Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the biopolymer responsible to contain the sequence information for the polypeptide synthesis in living organisms. However, because of its physicochemical and molecular recognition properties, this macromolecule has been considered to produce a wide variety of nanostructured materials. Depending on the size and sequence of the molecule, single- and double-stranded DNA is able to template the aggregation of different chemical species in solution, followed by a chemical reaction to crystallize nanostructures of various topologies and sizes. Particularly, short single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligonucleotides (small molecules 8-50 nucleotides) in aqueous solutions, at different pH values, ionic strength, and low temperature (4°C), have templated the formation of metallic nanoparticles (silver, zinc and copper), exhibiting diverse structure dimensions and geometries produced by distinct synthesis process. This DNA-guided crystalization is based on the acid-base ionization of the heterocyclic bases, and the subsequent electrostatic aggregation of counterions around the formed electrically-charged sites in the chain, also affected by the nearest-neighbours base stacking. Accordingly, molecular ions and small polar compounds have been assayed to obtain nanostructures on these ionized short ssDNA, at different pH media, and even bound to substrates such as microcrystalline cellulose and starch. Preliminary results suggest the formation of nanostructures on short DNA homo-oligomers (identical monomer units), either in aqueous solution or attached to polysaccharides, attributable to clear shifts in the corresponding UV absorption spectra of ssDNA, with topologies and size of the nanostructures remaining pending. This alternative method to produce DNA-based nanostructures may have interesting applications in the field of Bionanotechnology, due to to the modularity of the short ssDNA, even coupled to other materials or DNA origamis.
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