Circular RNA oligonucleotides: enzymatic synthesis and scaffolding for nanoconstruction

We report the efficient synthesis of monomeric circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the size range of 16-44 nt with a novel DNA dumbbell splinting plus T4 DNA ligation strategy. Such a DNA dumbbell splinting strategy was developed by one group among ours recently for near-quantitative conversion of short linear DNAs into monomeric circular ones. Furthermore, using the 44 nt circRNA as scaffold strands, we constructed hybrid RNA:DNA and pure RNA:RNA double crossover tiles and their assemblies of nucleic acid nanotubes and flat arrays. Circular RNAs (similar to 16-44 nt) were enzymatically synthesized efficiently via a novel DNA dumbbell splinting strategy, further, the circular 44 nt RNA was used as scaffold strands to construct hybrid and pure RNA double crossover tiles and nanostructures.