Analysis and Algorithmic Construction of Self-Assembled DNA Complexes

Abstract

DNA self-assembly is an important tool that has a wide range of applications such as building nanostructures, the transport of target virotherapies, and nano-circuitry. Tools from graph theory can be used to encode the biological process of DNA self-assembly. The principle component of this process is to examine collections of branched junction molecules, called pots, and study the types of structures that can be constructed. We restrict our attention to pots which contain one set of complementary cohesive-ends, i.e. a single bond-edge type, and we identify the types and sizes of structures that can be built from such a pot. In particular, we show a dependence between the order of graphs in the output of the pot and the number of arms on the corresponding tiles. Furthermore, we provide two algorithms which will construct complete complexes for a pot with a single bond-edge type.