Fiber assembly and use thereof

A method of producing a fiber assembly,

• wherein the fibers are microtubules or actin fibers,
• the production method includes bringing a first fiber to which a first single-stranded nucleic acid fragment is bound, a second fiber to which a second single-stranded nucleic acid fragment is bound, and a third single-stranded nucleic acid fragment including a region complementary to the first single-stranded nucleic acid fragment and a region complementary to the second single-stranded nucleic acid fragment into contact with each other.

A method of dissociating a fiber assembly into single fibers,

• wherein the fibers are microtubules or actin fibers,
• wherein the fiber assembly includes a first fiber to which a first single-stranded nucleic acid fragment is bound, a second fiber to which a second single-stranded nucleic acid fragment is bound, and a third single-stranded nucleic acid fragment including a region complementary to the first single-stranded nucleic acid fragment and a region complementary to the second single-stranded nucleic acid fragment, and
• wherein the method includes bringing a fourth single-stranded nucleic acid fragment including a region complementary to the third single-stranded nucleic acid fragment into contact with the fiber assembly.

A method of moving a fiber assembly,

• wherein the fibers are microtubules or actin fibers,
• wherein the fiber assembly includes a first fiber to which a first single-stranded nucleic acid fragment is bound, a second fiber to which a second single-stranded nucleic acid fragment is bound, and a third single-stranded nucleic acid fragment including a region complementary to the first single-stranded nucleic acid fragment and a region complementary to the second single-stranded nucleic acid fragment, and
• wherein the method includes bringing the fiber assembly and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into contact with each other on a substrate whose surface is covered with motor proteins.

Artificial muscles, comprising:

• multiple microtubules;
• and
• kinesin or dynein multimers that crosslink the multiple microtubules.