RNA Used to Control a DNA Rotary Nanomachine

The PX-JX₂ device is a robust sequence-dependent DNA nanomachine. It is controlled by the addition of DNA strands to the solution. The ability to control such devices with RNA will enable the machine to respond to signals generated by transcriptional logic circuits in vitro or, possibly, in vivo. The PX-JX₂ device does not respond properly to RNA strands, so we have adapted the signaling method by using a cover-strand strategy, This approach entails using DNA control strands that contain sequence regions to set the device to either state. An RNA strand is used to mask one of these two regions, enabling the machine to assume the state corresponding to the unmasked region.