An example of the ΔG distribution associated with one sequence binding to the other sequences is shown in Figure . It reveals that most non-native interactions, of strengths {ε''}, yield noticeably higher free energy than the native with correct WC base-pairing, ε. However, one sequence (or a few) tends to be very similar to the reverse complement, differing by only a few nucleotides. The energy -ε' of this "closest non-native interaction" is lower than for any other "random" interaction -ε'' (where -ε'' tends to be positive due to lack of complementarity between the sequences), and is closest to that of, but distinct from the native interaction, -ε. This smallest, but always present nonzero "energy gap" between -ε' and -ε is essential, ensuring that errors-mutations can only occur infrequently, and is deeply related to the quantum nature of molecular interactions, as noted by E. Schrödinger in his seminal book. The multimodal energy distribution is universal not only among all sequences within this chosen ensemble (Figure ), but also in other randomly-generated sequences of various nucleotide lengths (Figure , S8). Importantly, such analysis yields a quantitative measure of both the largest misbinding ε'/ε, and random misbinding ε''/ε, a sequence can encounter (Figure ). Both kinds of misbinding decrease with increasing temperature (Figure ) and increasing sequence length (Figure ). The former is due to a greater entropic cost of duplex formation at higher T (-TΔS, ΔS < 0), and the latter is expected as the probability of nucleotide mismatches between two sequences increases with longer sequences. The three energy parameters (ε, ε', and ε'') are then incorporated in our CG models to better capture the "multimodal" ΔG distribution associated with DNA-based assembly. The revised interaction potential between colored particles i and j reads