Team:MIT/Motivation

From 2012.igem.org

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Qian and Winfree (<i>Science</i> 2011) utilized DNA computation to create AND and OR logic gates <i>in vitro</i>. They constructed a sophisticated binary square root circuit using these gates:
Qian and Winfree (<i>Science</i> 2011) utilized DNA computation to create AND and OR logic gates <i>in vitro</i>. They constructed a sophisticated binary square root circuit using these gates:
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<cetner><img src="https://2012.igem.org/File:MIT_Curly_strands_square_root_circuit.png" width=570/></center>
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<center><img src="https://2012.igem.org/File:MIT_Curly_strands_square_root_circuit.png" width=570/></center>
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Each of these:
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<curly strand 1> <curly strand 2>
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undergoes the same <b>toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction</b>. These reactions are fully modular and can be scaled to circuits of any degree of sophistication.
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<h3>Motivation for Bringing Strand Displacement to Mammalian Synthetic Biology</h3>
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Revision as of 02:14, 27 October 2012

iGEM 2012

Background and Motivation

In the near future, biological circuits will be much more modular and sophisticated than they are now, with a ten-fold smaller nucleotide footprint.

The Enabling Technology: Toehold-Mediated Strand Displacement

A gate strand and output strand exist as a complex that is partially bound through complementary Watson-Crick base-pairing within the S2 binding domain. The gate strand also contains an open, unbound domain called a toehold region, T*. An input strand with a free complementary toehold region, T, can bind to the toehold region on the gate strand, and subsequently displace the output strand to yield an input-gate complex. This is called a toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction. The output strand is used as an input for a downstream gate-output complex.

Background

Qian and Winfree (Science 2011) utilized DNA computation to create AND and OR logic gates in vitro. They constructed a sophisticated binary square root circuit using these gates:
Each of these: undergoes the same toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction. These reactions are fully modular and can be scaled to circuits of any degree of sophistication.

Motivation for Bringing Strand Displacement to Mammalian Synthetic Biology