DNA COMPUTING ON SURFACES - ENCODING INFORMATION AT THE SINGLE-BASE LEVEL

The feasibility of encoding a bit (0 or 1) of information for DNA-base d computations at the single nucleotide level is evaluated, particular ly with regard to the efficiency and specificity of hybridization disc rimination. Hybridization experiments are performed on addressed array s of 32 (2(5)) distinct oligonucleotides immobilized on chemically mod ified glass and gold surfaces,vith information encoded in a binary (ba se 2) format. Similar results are obtained oh both glass and gold surf aces and the results are generally consistent with thermodynamic calcu lations of matched and mismatched duplex stabilities, It is found that under the conditions required to obtain single nucleotide specificity in the hybridization process, hybridization efficiency is low, compro mising the utility of single nucleotide encoding for DNA computing app lications in the absence of some additional mechanism for increasing s pecificity. Several methods are suggested to provide such increased di scrimination.