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Simplifying the role of signals in tile self-assembly

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Abstract

Sending signals through DNA-based structures is one of the methods used to enhance the capabilities of DNA self-assembly systems. Signal Tile Assembly Models at temperature one, in supertile-to-supertile attachment mode, have been showed to have universal computational power. We introduce a simplified signal tile assembly model, in one-tile-at-a-time attachment mode, and where signals can only be used to deactivate glues. We prove that such a simplified system at temperature one can still simulate a Turing machine. We also present a simplified signal tile assembly system, in supertile-to-supertile attachment mode, that assembles a thin, \(N \times N!\), rectangle and has tile complexity \(O(\log N)\). This result is an improvement over the tile complexity of existing models for thin rectangle self-assembly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Lila Kari

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Lila Kari & Amirhossein Simjour

Authors
  1. Lila Kari
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  2. Amirhossein Simjour
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amirhossein Simjour.

Additional information

This research was supported by Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant R2824A01 to L.K.

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Kari, L., Simjour, A. Simplifying the role of signals in tile self-assembly. Nat Comput 18, 383–401 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-018-9676-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-018-9676-z

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