Figure 8.

Computational DNA droplets. (a) AND gate. Images adapted from [84]. (b) Thermodynamic description of the AND gate. Two miRNA inputs are used as a substrate to perform the cleavage reaction of the linker DNA. By the hybridization and their strand displacement of two inputs, the free energy decreased by $\mathrm{\Delta }{G}_{\mathrm{h}}+\mathrm{\Delta }{G}_{\mathrm{sd}}$. Just after the linker cleavage, the DNA droplet is almost mixed (bottom left); then, phase separation occurs with the free energy decrease $\mathrm{\Delta }{G}_{\mathrm{ps}}$ (bottom right), resulting in DNA droplet division.