Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Logo for

Science 318 (5853): 1121-1125

Copyright © 2007 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Engineering Entropy-Driven Reactions and Networks Catalyzed by DNA

David Yu Zhang,1{dagger} Andrew J. Turberfield,2 Bernard Yurke,3* Erik Winfree1{dagger}

Abstract: Artificial biochemical circuits are likely to play as large a role in biological engineering as electrical circuits have played in the engineering of electromechanical devices. Toward that end, nucleic acids provide a designable substrate for the regulation of biochemical reactions. However, it has been difficult to incorporate signal amplification components. We introduce a design strategy that allows a specified input oligonucleotide to catalyze the release of a specified output oligonucleotide, which in turn can serve as a catalyst for other reactions. This reaction, which is driven forward by the configurational entropy of the released molecule, provides an amplifying circuit element that is simple, fast, modular, composable, and robust. We have constructed and characterized several circuits that amplify nucleic acid signals, including a feedforward cascade with quadratic kinetics and a positive feedback circuit with exponential growth kinetics.

1 Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, MC 136-93, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA91125, USA.
2 Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.
3 Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.

* Present address: Materials Science and Engineering Department, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: winfree{at}caltech.edu (E.W.); dzhang{at}dna.caltech.edu (D.Y.Z.)

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Modelling amorphous computations with transcription networks.
Z. B. Simpson, T. L. Tsai, N. Nguyen, X. Chen, and A. D. Ellington (2009)
J R Soc Interface 6, S523-S533
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A programming language for composable DNA circuits.
A. Phillips and L. Cardelli (2009)
J R Soc Interface 6, S419-S436
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882