Synthetic Counter (iGem2005 ETH Zurich)

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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.

Design of the Counter

Methods

Results and Discussion

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