Nature knows how to make proteins and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) dance to assemble and sustain life. Inspired by this proof of principle, researchers at the California Institute of Technology have demonstrated that it is possible to program the pathways by which DNA strands self-assemble and disassemble, and hence to control the dynamic function of the molecules as they traverse these pathways. The team invented a versatile DNA motif with three modular domains that can be made to interact with complementary domains in other species of the same motif. Rewiring these relationships changes the dynamic function of the system.
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