Mechano-fluorescence actuation in single synaptic vesicles with a DNA framework nanomachine

This is data about our paper. In this paper, we report the design of a DNA framework nanomachine (DFN) that can autonomously change shapes in response to pH variations in single synaptic vesicles, which in turn displays adaptive fluorescent colors with a mechano-fluorescence actuation mechanism. To construct a DFN, we employ a tetrahedral DNA nanostructure as the framework to incorporate an embedded pH-responsive, i-motif sequence tagged with a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) pair, and an affinity cholesterol moiety targeting vesicular membranes. We find that endocytosed DFNs are individually trapped in single endocytic vesicles in living synaptic cells due to the size-exclusion effect. The adaptive fluorescence coloration of DFNs enables single-vesicle quantification of resting pH values in a processive manner, allowing long-term tracking of the exocytosis and fusion dynamics in intracellular processes and cell-cell communications.