Using RecA protein to enhance kinetic rates of DNA circuits

Abstract

While DNA circuits are becoming increasingly useful as signal transducers, their utility is inhibited by their slow catalytic rate. Here, we demonstrate how RecA, a recombination enzyme that catalyzes sequence specific strand exchange, can be used to increase circuit rates up to 9-fold. We also show how the introduction of RNA into DNA circuits further controls the specificity of RecA strand exchange, improving signal-to-noise.