Synthetic Counter (iGem2005 ETH Zurich)
From 2006.igem.org
Abstract. We report here the design and implementation in vivo of a gene circuit that can count up to 4. In essence, it uses two toggle switches, each storing 1 bit, to keep track of the 4 states. The design of the counter is highly modular, in the hope that it can be included as a unit in larger circuits, but also combined with similar units to keep track of a much larger number of states, up to (2^(n+1)) with n units. To facilitate further development and integration to other projects, the counter is available in form of BioBricks.
Contents |
Introduction
The past few years have seen the emergence of the field of synthetic biology, in which functional units are designed and built into cells to generate a particular behaviour, and ultimately to better understand Life's mechanisms. Previous work include the creation of gene circuits that generate oscillating behaviour (Elowitz00), toggle switch functionality (Atkinson03), artificial cell-cell communication (Bulter04) or pattern-forming behaviour (Basu2005). Here, we report the design and realization of a gene circuit that counts.
