Department of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8501, Japan.
Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8501, Japan.
Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 27;15(1):7397. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51299-5.
Synthetic droplets mimicking bio-soft matter droplets formed via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) in living cells have recently been employed in nanobiotechnology for artificial cells, molecular robotics, molecular computing, etc. Temporally controlling the dynamics of synthetic droplets is essential for developing such bio-inspired systems because living systems maintain their functions based on the temporally controlled dynamics of biomolecular reactions and assemblies. This paper reports the temporal control of DNA-based LLPS droplets (DNA droplets). We demonstrate the timing-controlled division of DNA droplets via time-delayed division triggers regulated by chemical reactions. Controlling the release order of multiple division triggers results in order control of the multistep droplet division, i.e., pathway-controlled division in a reaction landscape. Finally, we apply the timing-controlled division into a molecular computing element to compare microRNA concentrations. We believe that temporal control of DNA droplets will promote the design of dynamic artificial cells/molecular robots and sophisticated biomedical applications.
最近，在仿生学领域中，通过模拟活细胞中液-液相分离（LLPS）形成的生物软物质液滴，合成液滴被应用于纳米生物技术，如人工细胞、分子机器人、分子计算等。因为生命系统基于生物分子反应和组装的时间控制动力学来维持其功能，所以对合成液滴的动力学进行时间控制对于开发这种仿生系统至关重要。本文报道了基于 DNA 的液-液相分离液滴（DNA 液滴）的时间控制。我们通过化学反应调控的时滞分裂触发，实现了 DNA 液滴的定时分裂。控制多个分裂触发的释放顺序，可实现多步液滴分裂的顺序控制，即在反应景观中的路径控制分裂。最后，我们将定时控制的分裂应用于分子计算元件，以比较 microRNA 的浓度。我们相信，DNA 液滴的时间控制将促进动态人工细胞/分子机器人的设计和复杂的生物医学应用。
