Modeling A Synthetic Multicellular Clock: Repressilators Coupled By Quorum Sensing

Complexity Digest 2004.32 - 10.01

09-Aug-2004

Modeling A Synthetic Multicellular Clock: Repressilators Coupled By Quorum Sensing, PNAS

Author's Summary: This paper asks how one might couple a population of synthetic gene oscillators, known as "repressilators," in such a way that they will self-synchronize, despite the heterogeneity in the cells themselves. The scheme proposed here seems to be biochemically feasible, and works well in numerical simulations. It relies on the sort of technical wizardry made possible today by genetic engineering; the cells are coaxed to interact by the "quorum-sensing" mechanism that operates between certain bacterial cells, mediated by the diffusion of a signaling molecule. The goal is to synthesize the analog of a multicellular biological clock. (See more detailed summary.)

Source: Modeling A Synthetic Multicellular Clock: Repressilators Coupled By Quorum Sensing
[ http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/30/10955 ], Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo, Michael B. Elowitz, Steven H. Strogatz, PNAS, vol. 101 | no. 30 | 10955-10960, 04/07/27