Automata, Languages, and Programming

From ligand-receptor binding to DNA hybridization, molecular recognition plays a central role in biology. Over the past several decades, chemists have successfully reproduced the exquisite specificity of biomolecular interactions. However, engineering multiple specific interactions in synthetic systems remains difficult. DNA retains its position as the best medium with which to create orthogonal, isoenergetic interactions, based on the complementarity of Watson-Crick binding. Here we show that DNA can be used to create diverse bonds using an entirely different principle: the geometric arrangement of blunt-end stacking interactions. We show that both binary codes and shape complementarity can serve as a basis for such stacking bonds, and explore their specificity, thermodynamics and binding rules. Orthogonal stacking bonds were used to connect five distinct DNA origami. This work, which demonstrates how a single attractive interaction can be developed to create diverse bonds, may guide strategies for molecular recognition in systems beyond DNA nanostructures.

Recent work has demonstrated the self-assembly of designed periodic two-dimensional arrays composed of DNA tiles, in which the intermolecular contacts are directed by 'sticky' ends. In a mathematical context, aperiodic mosaics may be formed by the self-assembly of 'Wang' tiles, a process that emulates the operation of a Turing machine. Macroscopic self-assembly has been used to perform computations; there is also a logical equivalence between DNA sticky ends and Wang tile edges. This suggests that the self-assembly of DNA-based tiles could be used to perform DNA-based computation. Algorithmic aperiodic self-assembly requires greater fidelity than periodic self-assembly, because correct tiles must compete with partially correct tiles. Here we report a one-dimensional algorithmic self-assembly of DNA triple-crossover molecules that can be used to execute four steps of a logical (cumulative XOR) operation on a string of binary bits.