A Free-Running DNA Motor Powered by a Nicking Enzyme

✍ Scribed by Jonathan Bath; Simon J. Green; Andrew J. Turberfield

• Book ID: 101566090
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 318 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.200501262

✦ Synopsis

Herein, we present a simple linear motor, built from DNA and a restriction enzyme, which moves a DNA cargo in discrete steps along a DNA track. Movement is powered by a nicking enzyme that cuts the track. Damage to the track in the wake of the cargo imposes directionality.

The specificity of base-pairing, the rigidity of short segments of the double helix, and the flexibility of singlestranded segments make DNA an ideal material for construction of nanometer-sized mechanical devices. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Such devices can generate forces of the order of picoNewtons, [2] in the same range as the forces developed by single-molecule