Development of DNA computing and information processing based on DNA-strand displacement

DNA computing, currently a hot research field in information processing, has the advantages of parallelism, low energy consumption, and high storability; therefore, it has been applied to a variety of complicated computational problems. The emerging field of DNA nanotechnology has also developed quickly; within it, the method of DNA strand displacement has drawn great attention because it is self-induced, sensitive, accurate, and operationally simple. This article summarizes five aspects of the recent developments of DNA-strand displacement in DNA computing: (1) cascading circuits; (2) catalyzed reaction; (3) logic computation; (4) DNA computing on surfaces; and (5) logic computing based on nanoparticles guided by strand displacement. The applications and mechanisms of strand displacement in DNA computing are discussed and possible future developments are presented.