PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Niranjan Srinivas
AU  - James Parkin
AU  - Georg Seelig
AU  - Erik Winfree
AU  - David Soloveichik
TI  - Enzyme-Free Nucleic Acid Dynamical Systems
AID  - 10.1101/138420
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 138420
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/16/138420.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/16/138420.full
AB  - Chemistries exhibiting complex dynamics—from inorganic oscillators to gene regulatory networks—have been long known but cannot be reprogrammed at will because of a lack of control over their evolved or serendipitously found molecular building blocks. Here we show that information-rich DNA strand displacement cascades could be systematically constructed to realize complex temporal trajectories specified by an abstract chemical reaction network model. We codify critical design principles in a compiler that automates the design process, and demonstrate our approach by building a novel DNA-only oscillator. Unlike biological networks that rely on the sophisticated chemistry underlying the central dogma, our test tube realization suggests that simple Watson-Crick base pairing interactions alone suffice for arbitrarily complex dynamics. Our result establishes a basis for autonomous and programmable molecular systems that interact with and control their chemical environment.