Toehold mediated strand displacement

[3][6] This initial endothermic step is rate limiting[1] and can be tuned by varying the strength (length and sequence composition e.g. G-C or A-T rich strands) of the toehold region.

[3] The ability to tune the rate of strand displacement over a range of 6 orders of magnitude generates the backbone of this technique and allows the kinetic control of DNA or RNA devices.

[2][4][7] The whole process is energetically favored and although a reverse reaction can occur its rate is up to 6 orders of magnitude slower.

[10][11] Unlike TMSD, it used the polymerase enzyme as a source of energy and it referred to as polymerase-based strand displacement.

[12] Masking and unmasking of the toehold domains together with the ability to precisely control the kinetics of the reaction makes toehold mediated strand displacement a valuable tool in the field of DNA nanotechnology[4] Moreover, biosensors based on toehold mediated strand displacement reaction are useful in single molecule detection of DNA targets and SNP discrimination.