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Fuel-Driven Catalytic Molecular Templating
Merry Mitra1, Rakesh Mukherjee1, Križan Jurinović1
1Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Engineering Biology, Imperial College LondonLondonSW7 2AZ, U.K.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
|August 12, 2026
Summary
This study introduces an enzyme-free method for DNA templated dimerization, overcoming product inhibition using a fuel strand. This innovation enables controlled information propagation and links DNA circuitry to catalytic output.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Biochemistry
- Synthetic Biology
Background:
- Catalytic molecular templating is essential for cellular processes like DNA replication and protein synthesis.
- Emulating enzyme-free templating has been difficult due to product inhibition, limiting reaction efficiency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an enzyme-free DNA-based templated dimerization reaction.
- To overcome product inhibition in templating reactions.
- To demonstrate controlled information propagation using DNA templates.
Main Methods:
- Designed a DNA-based system utilizing a fuel strand to displace reaction products.
- Investigated various design variants to optimize catalytic turnover.
- Demonstrated information propagation by assembling specific products from a common building block pool.
Main Results:
- Successfully achieved enzyme-free templated dimerization by overcoming product inhibition.
- Optimized catalytic turnover through systematic design variant investigation.
- Showcased controlled information propagation and the ability to couple templating to upstream DNA circuitry.
Conclusions:
- The developed fuel-strand-controlled system provides a novel approach to enzyme-free molecular templating.
- This method overcomes key limitations in prior templating strategies, enabling efficient information propagation.
- The system offers potential for applications in synthetic biology and DNA-based computation.
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