**Acknowledgements**

*Bio-Inspired Technology*

strategies. These are:

**Figure 3.**

**3. Conclusion**

b.Conductive AFM measurements

*NPs attached on the DNA origami. Adapted from Ref. [40].*

c.DNA Origami-based metal nanostructures

cost of experimental synthesis need to be address in near future.

affected by the DNA sequences, substrate and contact properties, temperature and humidity [44–46]. Recently, studies were conducted on the electrical measurements on guanine quadruplex DNA (G4-DNA), which is uniform in composition, consist of only G-nucleotides and it was observed that G4-DNA exhibit a greater bending rigidity compared to the dsDNA. Several techniques have been developed for contacting the nanowires with the combination of bottom-up and top-down

*(a) The construction of conductive silver nanowires, (b) PVD metal deposition on the alignment of DNA NW, (c) RNA functionalized AuNPs and (d) (1) DNA origami molds with Au nanoparticles and (2) nanoparticles* 

a.Lithographically defined contacts and *in situ*/*ex situ* I–V measurements

DNA acts as a promising material for biomolecular nanotechnology due to its unique recognition capabilities, physicochemical stability, mechanical rigidity and high precision processibility. Significant progress has been made in this field, but it is still in the early stages. The catalytic, electrical, magnetic, and electrochemical properties of such structures can be systematically investigated and will represent the new frontiers in this field. Various DNA-based nanostructures, including DNA itself, DNA functionalized with metal and semiconductor nanoparticles, DNAdirected nanowires, and DNA-functionalized carbon nanotubes are used in wider application for biological and medical applications. Due to the present applicability of DNA structures, these properties should be properly studied to provide an access to the new and useful electronic and photonic materials. The development of DNA nanowires has recently focussed its attention in three aspects: (1) customising the sequence of nucleic acids for better electrical conductivity with reduced mismatch pair complexes, (2) stacking targeted double-helical backbone for stable and rigid nanowires, and (3) interconnection of discrete DNA origami structures [47]. Though researches have been carried out for the achievement of these targets, the

**6**

RS acknowledges the financial assistance by the DST WOS-A (SR/WOS-A/ CS-69/2018). RS is also thankful to her mentor Dr. Shrish Tiwari, Bioinformatics Department, CSIR—Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad for the support.
