Self-Replicating DNA Nanostructures: Autocatalytic Nanodevices derived from Catalytic Nanodevices

This paper describes some general techniques for transforming the design of a class of catalytic DNA nanodevices into the design for autocatalytic DNA nanodevices. Our techniques are particularly applicable to catalytic DNA nanodevices that act as detectors, where we would like their response to be sped up via autocatalytic behavior. We provide an example of this general scheme for design of autocatalytic DNA nanodevices from catalytic DNA nanodevices via design and demonstration of a autocatalytic selfreplicating DNA 3-arm junction system, derived from a catalytic DNA 3-arm junction system previously devised by Pierce et al [18].