RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Programmable patterns in a DNA-based reaction-diffusion system
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 556381
DO 10.1101/556381
A1 Sifang Chen
A1 Georg Seelig
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/02/21/556381.abstract
AB Biology offers compelling proof that macroscopic “living materials” can emerge from reactions between diffusing biomolecules. Here, we show that molecular self-organization could be a similarly powerful approach for engineering functional synthetic materials. We introduce a programmable DNA-hydrogel that produces tunable patterns at the centimeter length scale. We generate these patterns by implementing chemical reaction networks through synthetic DNA complexes, embedding the complexes in hydrogel, and triggering with locally applied input DNA strands. We first demonstrate ring pattern formation around a circular input cavity and show that the ring width and intensity can be predictably tuned. Then, we create patterns of increasing complexity, including concentric rings and non-isotropic patterns. Finally, we show “destructive” and “constructive” interference patterns, by combining several ring-forming modules in the gel and triggering them from multiple sources. We further show that computer simulations based on the reaction-diffusion model can predict and inform the programming of target patterns.