Mutations in artificial self-replicating tiles: A step toward Darwinian evolution
Artificial self-replication and exponential growth holds the promise of gaining a better understanding of fundamental processes in nature but also of evolving new materials and devices with useful properties. A system of DNA origami dimers has been shown to exhibit exponential growth and selection. Here we introduce mutation and growth advantages to study the possibility of Darwinian-like evolution. We seed and grow one dimer species, AB, from A and B monomers that doubles in each cycle. A similar species from C and D monomers can replicate at a controlled growth rate of two or four per cycle but is unseeded. Introducing a small mutation rate so that AB parents infrequently template CD offspring we show experimentally that the CD species can take over the system in approximately six generations in an advantageous environment. This demonstration opens the door to the use of evolution in materials design.
- Research Organization:
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Army Research Office (ARO); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0007991; SC0000989; EFRI-1332411; CCF-1526650; DMR-1420073; W911NF-11-1-0024; N000140911118; RGP0010/2017
- OSTI ID:
- 1834244
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1904563
- Journal Information:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 118 Journal Issue: 50; ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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