Control of swarming of molecular robots

Jakia Jannat Keya,Arif Md Rashedul Kabir,Akira Kakugo,Henry Hess,Daisuke Inoue,Akinori Kuzuya,Kazuki Sada

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-30187-1

Jakia Jannat Keya, Arif Md Rashedul Kabir + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30187-1

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Abstract

Recently we demonstrated swarming of a self-propelled biomolecular motor system microtubule (MT)-kinesin where interactions among thousands of motile MTs were regulated in a highly programmable fashion by using DNA as a processor. However, precise control of this potential system is yet to be achieved to optimize the swarm behavior. In this work, we systematically controlled swarming of MTs on kinesin adhered surface by different physicochemical parameters of MT-kinesin and DNA. Tuning the length of DNA sequences swarming was precisely controlled with thermodynamic and kinetic feasibility. In addition, swarming was regulated using different concentration of DNA crosslinkers. Reversibility of swarming was further controlled by changing the concentration of strand displacement DNA signal allowing dissociation of swarm. The control over the swarm was accompanied by variable stiffness of MTs successfully, providing translational and circular motion. Moreover, the morphology of swarm was also found to be changed not only depending on the stiffness but also body length of MTs. Such detail study of precise control of swarming would provide new insights in developing a promising molecular swarm robotic system with desired functions.

Highlights

Colonies of bacteria and ants[1,2,3], school of fish[4], or flocks of birds[5,6] represent typical examples of swarming in nature[7,8,9], which emerge through local interactions among the self-propelled living organisms rather than through control by a leader
We demonstrate how the strength of the DNA interaction regulates the swarming of MTs by varying the concentration of receptor DNA (r-DNA), linker DNA (l-DNA), dissociation DNA (d-DNA)
The DNA conjugated MTs were propelled by surface-adhered kinesins using the chemical energy of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

Summary

Introduction

Colonies of bacteria and ants[1,2,3], school of fish[4], or flocks of birds[5,6] represent typical examples of swarming in nature[7,8,9], which emerge through local interactions among the self-propelled living organisms rather than through control by a leader. A lack of programmability of local interactions among the self-propelled objects prevents us from establishing precise control over the artificial swarming. To overcome this drawback, we developed a methodology to program local interactions among a large number of MTs driven by biomolecular motor kinesins[25]. By introducing DNA based molecular recognition into the self-propelled system of kinesin driven MTs, we successfully controlled the swarming of thousands of MTs in a reversible fashion. Alongside with programming the swarming, understanding the effect of physicochemical parameters of the system is important to design complex behavior of molecular swarm robots. Complex molecular devices utilizing swarming of biomolecular motor systems in a bottom-up manner giving rise to new emergent functions of molecular robots

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