Beyer Stefan, Simmel Friedrich C
Department of Physics and Center for Nanoscience, LMU München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, Germany.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 Mar 17;34(5):1581-7. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkl075. Print 2006.
Owing to the intimate linkage of sequence and structure in nucleic acids, DNA is an extremely attractive molecule for the development of molecular devices, in particular when a combination of information processing and chemomechanical tasks is desired. Many of the previously demonstrated devices are driven by hybridization between DNA 'effector' strands and specific recognition sequences on the device. For applications it is of great interest to link several of such molecular devices together within artificial reaction cascades. Often it will not be possible to choose DNA sequences freely, e.g. when functional nucleic acids such as aptamers are used. In such cases translation of an arbitrary 'input' sequence into a desired effector sequence may be required. Here we demonstrate a molecular 'translator' for information encoded in DNA and show how it can be used to control the release of a protein by an aptamer using an arbitrarily chosen DNA input strand. The function of the translator is based on branch migration and the action of the endonuclease FokI. The modular design of the translator facilitates the adaptation of the device to various input or output sequences.
由于核酸序列与结构的紧密联系，DNA对于分子器件的开发极具吸引力，特别是当需要将信息处理和化学机械任务结合起来的时候。许多先前展示的器件是由DNA“效应”链与器件上的特定识别序列之间的杂交驱动的。对于应用而言，在人工反应级联中将多个这样的分子器件连接在一起非常有趣。通常无法自由选择DNA序列，例如当使用适体等功能性核酸时。在这种情况下，可能需要将任意“输入”序列翻译成所需的效应序列。在这里，我们展示了一种用于DNA编码信息的分子“翻译器”，并展示了如何使用任意选择的DNA输入链通过适体来控制蛋白质的释放。该翻译器的功能基于分支迁移和核酸内切酶FokI的作用。翻译器的模块化设计便于将该器件适配于各种输入或输出序列。
