A stochastic DNA walker that traverses a microparticle surface

Molecular machines have previously been designed that are propelled by DNAzymes(1–3), protein enzymes(4–6) and strand-displacement(7–9). These engineered machines typically move along precisely defined one- and two-dimensional tracks. Here, we report a DNA walker that uses hybridisation to drive walking on DNA-coated microparticle surfaces. Through purely DNA:DNA hybridisation reactions, the nanoscale movements of the walker can lead to the generation of a single-stranded product and the subsequent immobilisation of fluorescent labels on the microparticle surface. This suggests that the system could be of use in analytical and diagnostic applications, similar to how strand exchange reactions in solution have been used for transducing and quantifying signals from isothermal molecular amplification assays(10,11). The walking behaviour is robust and the walker can take more than 30 continuous steps. The traversal of an unprogrammed, inhomogeneous surface is also due entirely to autonomous decisions made by the walker, behaviour analogous to amorphous chemical reaction network computations(12,13) that have been shown to lead to pattern formation(14–17).