Molecular Locks are protein assemblies that home to target nucleic acids and cooperatively lock. Each Molecular Lock protein component has a part that binds to a portion of the target nucleic acid and a part that sets up the cooperative assembly and geometry of the Molecular Lock.
Molecular Lock reagents are provided as gene fragments that can be ligated together to produce expressible mini-gene cDNAs that code for Molecular Lock protein components. Molecular Lock cDNA mini-genes can be ligated to synthetic promoters and incorporated into an expression vector in order to express Molecular Lock protein components in cells.
If the targeted nucleic acid is spooled
by the expressed Molecular Lock protein assembly, the gene(s) associated
with the targeted nucleic acid may be turned OFF.
If the targeted nucleic acid is hairpinned
by the expressed Molecular Lock protein assembly, the gene(s) associated
with the targeted nucleic acid may be turned ON.
