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포항공과대학교 생명과학과

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리서치 하이라이트

Cellular Computational Logic Using Toehold Switches

2022-10-07 950
Author
Jongmin Kim
Journal
Int J Mol Sci . 2022 Apr 12;23(8):4265
Date of Publication
2022-04
Original link

Abstract

The development of computational logic that carries programmable and predictable features is one of the key requirements for next-generation synthetic biological devices. Despite considerable progress, the construction of synthetic biological arithmetic logic units presents numerous challenges. In this paper, utilizing the unique advantages of RNA molecules in building complex logic circuits in the cellular environment, we demonstrate the RNA-only bitwise logical operation of XOR gates and basic arithmetic operations, including a half adder, a half subtractor, and a Feynman gate, in Escherichia coli. Specifically, de-novo-designed riboregulators, known as toehold switches, were concatenated to enhance the functionality of an OR gate, and a previously utilized antisense RNA strategy was further optimized to construct orthogonal NIMPLY gates. These optimized synthetic logic gates were able to be seamlessly integrated to achieve final arithmetic operations on small molecule inputs in cells. Toehold-switch-based ribocomputing devices may provide a fundamental basis for synthetic RNA-based arithmetic logic units or higher-order systems in cells.

 


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