McGill
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== Project Overview == | == Project Overview == | ||
- | <u>''' | + | <u>'''Quorum-sensing coupled with the Repressilator'''</u> |
Our project is a continuation of one of the projects we presented last year: a two-gene oscillator, with an 'On' switch - LuxI gene, and an 'Off' switch - LacI, with a Cyan fluorescent protein bound, for visualization. This system works via the method of quorum-sensing between the two genes, with an artificial inducer (AI) protein produced by LuxI which couples when produced, to a constitutive gene in the system, LuxR to bind to LacI to turn the system off. Once AI is produced, it can spread to other cells and continue this 'On'-'Off' oscillator in other neighbouring cells, and hence increasing synchronization across a population of genetically oscillating cells. | Our project is a continuation of one of the projects we presented last year: a two-gene oscillator, with an 'On' switch - LuxI gene, and an 'Off' switch - LacI, with a Cyan fluorescent protein bound, for visualization. This system works via the method of quorum-sensing between the two genes, with an artificial inducer (AI) protein produced by LuxI which couples when produced, to a constitutive gene in the system, LuxR to bind to LacI to turn the system off. Once AI is produced, it can spread to other cells and continue this 'On'-'Off' oscillator in other neighbouring cells, and hence increasing synchronization across a population of genetically oscillating cells. | ||
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#By changing cell densities and observing their effect on the oscillator. | #By changing cell densities and observing their effect on the oscillator. | ||
#Adding an AI Analog (AHL) into the system. | #Adding an AI Analog (AHL) into the system. | ||
- | #Adding Tetracycline (DOX), | + | #Adding Tetracycline (DOX), an inhibitor of the LuxR promoter, to the system and observing its effect. |
#Adding an AI inhibitor (Aiia) into the system to control the levels of AI produced by the system. <br> | #Adding an AI inhibitor (Aiia) into the system to control the levels of AI produced by the system. <br> | ||
<br> | <br> |
Revision as of 13:20, 9 August 2007
Project OverviewQuorum-sensing coupled with the Repressilator Our project is a continuation of one of the projects we presented last year: a two-gene oscillator, with an 'On' switch - LuxI gene, and an 'Off' switch - LacI, with a Cyan fluorescent protein bound, for visualization. This system works via the method of quorum-sensing between the two genes, with an artificial inducer (AI) protein produced by LuxI which couples when produced, to a constitutive gene in the system, LuxR to bind to LacI to turn the system off. Once AI is produced, it can spread to other cells and continue this 'On'-'Off' oscillator in other neighbouring cells, and hence increasing synchronization across a population of genetically oscillating cells.
Both the quorum-sensing Oscillator and the Repressilator, though observed in a micro scale in our system, are important in helping understand time-varying conditions in the form of extrinsic driving from the environment and intrinsic rhythms generated within an organism itself. This includes specialized rhythm generators functioning in a coherent oscillatory state such as the cardiac pacemaker, also known as the sinoatrial node in mammalian hearts, and the circadian clock residing at the suprachiasmatic nuclei in mammalian brains.
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