A Responsive Hidden Toehold To Enable Controllable DNA Strand Displacement Reactions

In the loop: A hidden toehold in a metastable DNA bulge-loop structure allows regulation of DNA strand displacement reactions by the addition of ATP, which can bind to an aptamer located partly on the loop sequence (see picture, blue and green in A), thereby exposing the hidden toehold (green and red in Q). By introducing other aptamer sequences, this regulation mechanism could be easily extended to a variety of other ligands. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.