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Gel Verification
All of the essential mechanisms in our system were verified in solution using
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These mechanisms include:
walker-track binding,
triggering the walker,
walking from one track to another,
picking up cargo,
walking while carrying cargo,
triggering the cargo goal,
dropping off cargo, and
irreversibly walking from tracks to the walker goal.
Each gel has several control lanes (marked in green), where control
lanes are either single strands, or previously verified combinations of strands.
Positive controls are marked with (+) below the lane number, and negative
controls are marked with (-) below the lane number. We define a negative
control as one that should not appear in any reaction in that gel, even though
some may in practice appear due to stoichiometric errors etc. Lanes that
test the binding of certain strands are labeled in blue, whereas lanes that
test strand displacement reactions are labeled in red. Null experiments (ones
where we expect no reaction to occur, but provide comparisons for reactions
where we expect the end result to be the same or similar) are labeled in
black. All inputs in a lane were intended to be equimolar unless otherwise
noted. Probes were used when it seemed necessary to distinguish strands
or complexes of similar length (for example PTR2 was used with track 2
to distinguish it from track 1, although we found that TR1 always appears
slightly higher in the gel than TR2, and likewise when they are bound to the
walker, perhaps due to some minor secondary structure).
While the mechanisms all appear to behave properly in solution, there
were a few mysteries, which may or may not matter as the mechanisms are
translated onto origami. One such mystery is the apparent absence of TR2-PTR2
in lanes 6 and 7 of gel 4. There a couple possibilities
for this. One is that it is just very low intensity, and since it should be
close to the bands for W-TR1-C1, it blends in. Another is that there were
stoichiometric issues, so almost all of the TR2 is in W-TR2-PTR2-C1. In
any case, it does not seem possible for it to not exist if stoichiometry was
correct, given the results in those two lanes. Another mystery is that in
lanes 7 and 8 of gel 6
the bands that correspond to the walker
appear somewhat higher than expected. No logical explanation can be found
for this, and it seems ignorable, except for the fact that in a similar gel using
old cargo and cargo goal strands, the same effect appeared! Finally, in lane
4 of gel 7,
the walker goal appears much higher than a 47
nucleotide strand should appear (compare to the tracks). This was also seen
in other gels, which suggests there is probably some polymerization of the
strand (or otherwise some secondary structure), but since the rest of the gel
suggests the walker goal behaves as expected, it will be ignored.
Gel 1
This gel tests the ability of the walker to bind to its tracks and the walker triggering mechanism.
Lane 1: W : Control
Lane 2: TR1 : Control
Lane 3: TR2 : Control
Lane 4: WI : Control
Lane 5: WT : Control
Lane 6: W + TR1 → (W-TR1) : Walker binds to one of the track strands
Lane 7: W + TR2 → (W-TR2) : Walker binds to the other track strand
Lane 8: W + WI → (W-WI) : Walker Inhibitor Binds to the Walker
Lane 9: WI + WT → (WI-WT) : Walker Inhibitor Binds to the Walker Trigger
Lane 10: W + TR1 + WI → (W-TR1-WI) : Track binding to the Walker does not interfere with the binding between the Walker and Walker Inhibitor
Lane 11: (W-WI-TR1) + WT → (W-TR1) + (WI-WT) : Walker Trigger strips the Walker inhibitor off of the Walker
- In lanes 10 and 11 there is 2x of WI and in lane 11 there is 4x of WT.
Gel 2
This gel tests the random walking mechanism and initi-
ation of walking by triggering the walker.
Lane 1: W
Lane 2: TR1
Lane 3: TR2
Lane 4: PTR2
Lane 5: TR2 + PTR2 → (TR2-PTR2)
Lane 6: W + (TR2-PTR2) → W-TR2-PTR2
Lane 7: (W-TR1)
Lane 8: (W-TR1) + (TR2-PTR2) ↔ (W-TR2-PTR2) + TR1
Lane 9: (W-TR2-PTR2) + TR1 ↔ (W-TR1) + (TR2-PTR2)
Lane 10: (WI-WT)
Lane 11: (W-WI)
Lane 12: (W-TR1-WI)
Lane 13: (W-TR1-WI) + (TR2-PTR2) - NULL
Lane 14: (W-TR1-WI) + (TR2-PTR2) + WT → (WI-WT) + TR1 + (W-TR2-PTR2) + (W-TR1-WI) +(TR2-PTR2).
- In lanes 12, 13, and 14 there is 2x of WI, and in lane 14 there is 4x of WT.
Random walking mechanism: some parts of the gel was magnified.
Gel 3
This gel tests the cargo goal triggering mechanism.
Lane 1: CG1
Lane 2: CGI
Lane 3: CGT
Lane 4: CG1 + CGI → (CG1-CGI)
Lane 5: CGI + CGT →(CGI-CGT)
Lane 6: (CG1-CGI) + CGT → (CGI-CGT) + CG1
Gel 4
This gel tests the picking-up mechanism.
Lane 1: C1, TR1
Lane 2: TR2
Lane 3: W, CA
Lane 4: C1 + CA →(C1-CA)
Lane 5: W + C1 → (W-C1)
Lane 6: W + (C1-CA) →(W-C1) + CA
Lane 7: (W-TR1)
Lane 8: (W-TR2)
Lane 9: W + TR1 + C1 →(W-TR1-C1)
Lane 10: W + TR2 + C1 →(W-TR2-C1)
Lane 11: (W-TR1) + (C1-CA) →(W-TR1-C1) + CA
Lane 12: (W-TR2) + (C1-CA) →(W-TR2-C1) + CA
Lane 13: (W-TR1-C1) + CA - NULL
Lane 14: (W-TR2-C1) + CA - NULL
Gel 5
This gel tests the ability of the walker to walk while
carrying a cargo.
Lane 1: C1
Lane 2: TR1
Lane 3: (TR2-PTR2)
Lane 4: (W-TR1-C1)
Lane 5: W + TR2 + PTR2 + C1 → (W-TR2-PTR2-C1)
Lane 6: (W-TR1-C1) + (TR2-PTR2) ↔ (W-TR2-PTR2-C1) + TR1
Lane 7: (W-TR2-PTR2-C1) + TR1 ↔ (W-TR1-C1) +(TR2-PTR2)
Lane 8: (W-C1)
Lane 9: (W-TR1)
Lane 10:(W-TR2)
Lane 11: (W-TR2-C1)
Lane 12: (W-TR2-PTR2)
Gel 6
This gel tests the dropping-off mechanism.
Lane 1: W
Lane 2: CG1
Lane 3: PCG1
Lane 4: CG1 + PCG1 → (CG1-PCG1)
Lane 5: C1 + CG1 + PCG1 → (W-C1-PCG1)
Lane 6: (W-C1)
Lane 7: (W-C1) + (CG1-PCG1) ↔ (C1-CG1-PCG1) + W
Lane 8: W + (C1-CG1-PCG1) - NULL
Lane 9: (W-TR1)
Lane 10: (W-TR1-C1)
Lane 11: (W-TR1-C1) + (CG1-PCG1) ↔ (C1-CG1-PCG1) +(W-TR1)
Lane 12: (W-TR2)
Lane 13: (W-TR2-C1)
Lane 14: (W-TR2-C1) + (CG1-PCG1) ↔ (C1-CG1-PCG1) + (W-TR2)
Gel 7
This gel tests the termination of random walking by
reaching the walker goal.
Lane 1: W
Lane 2: TR1
Lane 3: TR2
Lane 4: WG
Lane 5: PWG
Lane 6: (W-TR1)
Lane 7: (W-TR2)
Lane 8: W+WG → (W-WG)
Lane 9: WG + PWG → (WG-PWG)
Lane 10: W+WG + PWG → (W-WG-PWG)
Lane 11: (W-TR1) + (WG-PWG) → (W-WG-PWG) + TR1
Lane 12: (W-TR2) + (WG-PWG) → (W-WG-PWG) + TR2
Lane 13: (W-WG-PWG) + TR1 → NULL
Lane 14: (W-WG-PWG) + TR2 → NULL
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