Directed Enzymatic Activation of 1-D DNA Tiles
Venue
ACS Nano (2015)
Publication Year
2015
Authors
Sudhanshu Garg, Harish Chandran, Nikhil Gopalkrishnan, Thomas H. LaBean, John Reif
BibTeX
Abstract
The tile assembly model is a Turing universal model of self-assembly where a set of
square shaped tiles with programmable sticky sides undergo coordinated
self-assembly to form arbitrary shapes, thereby computing arbitrary functions.
Activatable tiles are a theoretical extension to the Tile assembly model that
enhances its robustness by protecting the sticky sides of tiles until a tile is
partially incorporated into a growing assembly. In this article, we experimentally
demonstrate a simplified version of the Activatable tile assembly model. In
particular, we demonstrate the simultaneous assembly of protected DNA tiles where a
set of inert tiles are activated via a DNA polymerase to undergo linear assembly.
We then demonstrate stepwise activated assembly where a set of inert tiles are
activated sequentially one after another as a result of attachment to a growing 1-D
assembly. We hope that these results will pave the way for more sophisticated
demonstrations of activated assemblies.
