The manipulation of complex DNA solutions with genetic engineering tools has been proposed recently as a chemical methodology for solving instances of computationally intractable (so- called NP-complete) combinatorial problems. In this methodology, every possible solution to a particular mathematical problem is represented by a specific DNA strand. Using combinatorial chemistry methods, it is relatively easy to generate a "solution space" of, say, 10^10 different DNA molecules in a single test tube. Each of these DNA molecules is capable of hybridizing (i.e., forming a hydrogen-bonded duplex structure) with a unique complementary DNA strand. DNA molecules which are hybridized ("double-stranded DNA") can be distinguished from molecules which are not hybridized ("single-stranded DNA") by various enzymatic reactions. It is therefore possible to identify the presence of a particular "solution" (i.e., DNA molecule) to a mathematical problem by hybridization chemistry...
More
More
