USTC/Inputs and Outputs
From 2007.igem.org
PoPS (the flow of RNA Polymerase molecules along DNA) means the current of gene expression. Our logic gates accept PoPS input signals, but we cannot input a PoPS signal directly. We decide to add something into our system as input signal, such as cheminal ligands and light. So a convertor must be built firstly to convert these signals to PoPS signals.
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Candidates of input signals
Light
We decide not to use light signals as the inputs of our system mainly because of two reasons. One is that it would be rather difficult to dynamically control the light intensity in real experiments. Compared with simply adding reagents to the solutions, controlling the input level of light is far more complicated. Also, the techniques of how to keeping the light sensors on the cell membrane from frequently exposure to light
IPTG
aTc
AHL
Arabinose
Design of PoPS converters
The figure above shows the basic structure of our input device. It functions to convert chemical signals to the PoPS (the flow of RNA Polymerase molecules along DNA) signals of lac repressor and CI, which are actually the wires of our system.
PoPS-converter parts
Figure 2 is our first design of the [aTc]->PoPS converters. Fluorescent reporters was added behind it, and it is found that the background expression cannot be ignored under fluorescent microscope. It may be caused by the LVA tag of Tet repressor which makes the repressor weak. So we decide to remove the LVA tag of Tet repressor like the one showed in Figure 3.
