Boosting functionality of synthetic DNA circuits with tailored deactivation

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 13474
• Main Authors: Montagne, Kevin, Gines, Guillaume, Fujii, Teruo, Rondelez, Yannick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 15.11.2016; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Biochemistry; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Chemical reactions; Circuits; Life Sciences; Molecular Networks; Japan
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13474

Molecular programming takes advantage of synthetic nucleic acid biochemistry to assemble networks of reactions, in vitro, with the double goal of better understanding cellular regulation and providing information-processing capabilities to man-made chemical systems. The function of molecular circuits is deeply related to their topological structure, but dynamical features (rate laws) also play a critical role. Here we introduce a mechanism to tune the nonlinearities associated with individual nodes of a synthetic network. This mechanism is based on programming deactivation laws using dedicated saturable pathways. We demonstrate this approach through the conversion of a single-node homoeostatic network into a bistable and reversible switch. Furthermore, we prove its generality by adding new functions to the library of reported man-made molecular devices: a system with three addressable bits of memory, and the first DNA-encoded excitable circuit. Specific saturable deactivation pathways thus greatly enrich the functional capability of a given circuit topology.