Endy:Measkit draft

PiP

Open Questions

• How should we measure promoters under varying measurement conditions?
  • There is likely an analogy here to measuring length using a meter stick with a different (or the same) coefficient of expansion. An open question is whether J23101 when measured under any conditions should always = 1 SPU (even if the amount of PoPS produced is changing). As I understand this is not the way that it would be done when measuring length - if you measure a meter stick at a temperature where it expands 8X then it is 8 meters long, not 1 meter. However, there seems to still be value in treating J23101 as = 1 SPU across different measurement approaches in that it would allow you to rank order promoters measured in different environments by different researchers. So not sure how to reconcile these two different points.
• How should the reference standard and unit be defined?
  • For instance, we could define the unit of the SPU as the # of PoPS from a reference standard promoter (i.e. J23101) under some standard operating conditions.
  • We could alternatively define the SPU as = 1 PoPS.
  • I think that the first option is likely to be the right one, but I think it could be influenced by the answer to the first question above.