Biomolecular motor-based cargo transporters with loading/unloading mechanisms on a micro-patterned DNA array

Abstract

This paper describes research in creating autonomous cargo transporters that load, transport, and unload cargo molecules using the machinery in living cells. By exploiting biomolecular motor-based motility and DNA hybridization, we constructed autonomous cargo transporters and demonstrated that kinesin-driven microtubules can selectively load and transport cargoes toward micropatterned DNA spots designed to be unloading sites and selectively unload the transported cargoes at the DNA spots specified by particular DNA base sequences. These autonomous operations may help create highly miniaturized on-chip-systems such as molecular sorters and sensors, and may also provide an alternative technology to pressuredriven or electrokinetic flow-based microfluidic devices.

Experimental Research in Synthetic Molecular Communications -- Part I: Overview and Short-Range Systems

“…In this part, we discuss a line of early experimental works in SMC [33]- [36] that studied the use of tagged molecule containers (artificial vesicles) as transport vesicles for molecular motor-based LoC applications.…”

“…DNA-tagged molecular cargo transport: The authors of [35], [36] studied molecular motor-based active transport as a means to transport a molecular cargo from a designated molecular Tx to a designated molecular Rx. Specifically, in the experimental setup in [35], [36], kinesines were immobilized onto a surface and microtubules were employed as mobile molecular cargo transporters.…”

“…DNA-tagged molecular cargo transport: The authors of [35], [36] studied molecular motor-based active transport as a means to transport a molecular cargo from a designated molecular Tx to a designated molecular Rx. Specifically, in the experimental setup in [35], [36], kinesines were immobilized onto a surface and microtubules were employed as mobile molecular cargo transporters. Furthermore, both the molecular cargoes and the microtubules in [35], [36] were labeled with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and the selective loading of those cargoes labelled with ssDNA complimentary to the microtubule label could be confirmed.…”

“…Specifically, in the experimental setup in [35], [36], kinesines were immobilized onto a surface and microtubules were employed as mobile molecular cargo transporters. Furthermore, both the molecular cargoes and the microtubules in [35], [36] were labeled with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and the selective loading of those cargoes labelled with ssDNA complimentary to the microtubule label could be confirmed. Also, the unloading of cargoes at specific ssDNA-labeled Rx sites could be demonstrated experimentally in [35], [36].…”

“…Furthermore, both the molecular cargoes and the microtubules in [35], [36] were labeled with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and the selective loading of those cargoes labelled with ssDNA complimentary to the microtubule label could be confirmed. Also, the unloading of cargoes at specific ssDNA-labeled Rx sites could be demonstrated experimentally in [35], [36]. The loading and unloading processes hereby take place autonomously, i.e., they do not require external intervention.…”