Synthesis of the trisoligonucleotides and self-assembly of the DNA dodecahedron

The trisoligonucleotides were synthesized on a DNA synthesizer, purified in denaturing polyacrylamide gels and characterized by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The trisoligo-nucleotides were combined in equimolar quantities in hybridization buffer (10 mM phosphate buffer pH 7, 200 mM sodium chloride) and were heated to 90 °C for 5 minutes, cooled to 50 °C (90 minutes, ramp -0.1 Ks-1) and finally cooled to 4 °C (ramp -0.1 Ks-1).