Biological Logic Gate III: PCR

Figure 1. Taken from Ref. [1].

The passion of biological logic gates does not cease – at least that also catches NATURE’s attention [1]! Very creative work – a ‘PCR’ type logic gate triggered by the presence of metal ions [2]. The 2 inputs are the presence of 2 different metal ions (Hg2+ , Ag2+). If the metal ion triggers the respective polymerase action, PCR products will be formed and the output can be observed on the fluorescence intensity from gel electrophoresis. The group has achieved an ‘All-or-none’, an ‘AND’ and an ‘OR’ gate so far. This work and some previous ones should again stress the interesting concept of nucleic acid : metal ion interactions and its specificity issues. As suggested, this is ‘molecular computing’ [1] in action.

Reference:

1. Molecular computing: DNA as a logic operator
Thomas Carell
Nature 469, 45–46 (06 January 2011)
doi:10.1038/469045a
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v469/n7328/full/469045a.html#/references

2. “Illusionary” Polymerase Activity Triggered by Metal Ions: Use for Molecular Logic-Gate Operations
Ki Soo Park, Cheulhee Jung, and Hyun Gyu Park
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 9757 –9760
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201004406