IGEM:Melbourne/2008/ProjectIdeas/BiologicalClock: Difference between revisions
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*With regard to sensing when the previous component switches off, I have one idea for an implementation but don't know if it is feasible. If the protein for the ON signal for each component was not degraded too quickly but the OFF signal was, the component essentially has a short-term memory of when it was switched on. Thus, going from ON to OFF, both proteins would be present for a short time. This would not be seen going from OFF to ON as the OFF protein would be degraded quickly. Therefore the presence of both the ON and OFF signals could be used to indicate that a component has just switched itself off, acting as a trigger for the switching mechanism of the next component in the system. Any thoughts on how practical an idea like this is? | *With regard to sensing when the previous component switches off, I have one idea for an implementation but don't know if it is feasible. If the protein for the ON signal for each component was not degraded too quickly but the OFF signal was, the component essentially has a short-term memory of when it was switched on. Thus, going from ON to OFF, both proteins would be present for a short time. This would not be seen going from OFF to ON as the OFF protein would be degraded quickly. Therefore the presence of both the ON and OFF signals could be used to indicate that a component has just switched itself off, acting as a trigger for the switching mechanism of the next component in the system. Any thoughts on how practical an idea like this is? | ||
**YES! I think it makes good sense. So bacteria of the next bit only change state when they see both ON and OFF proteins present from previous toggle switch, yeah? (and that's when previous bacteria change from ON to OFF, yes?) But I just what to clarify one thing, when you said "the '''component''' essentially has a short-term memory of when it was switched on", you meant the component as the toggle switch not the bacteria that's holding the timing information right? (Because each bacteria (apart from '''B0''') must have a long-term memory of its current state (i.e. timing bit), either it's ON or it's OFF, until its previous toggle switch tells it to change state.) I'm looking forward to hearing more of your explainations at the meeting. | |||
Revision as of 21:07, 2 January 2008
I have been doing some thinking on this idea and there are a few things to consider.
- First, the 2006 team from ETH Zurich were working on a half adder that may be worth reviewing as a clock could be thought of as a series of adders that you keep adding one to.
- Secondly, the 2007 Peking team were working on a push-on/push-off switch (single signal switches state in both directions) that could be very useful, as we want each component to change its current state if the previous component switches off.
- Alternatively, for a single signal switch we could consider the mating type switching system in yeast in which the expression of a single gene induces a cell to switch to the opposite mating type. This would be quite complex to do however and may in fact be impossible with the time we have.
- With regard to sensing when the previous component switches off, I have one idea for an implementation but don't know if it is feasible. If the protein for the ON signal for each component was not degraded too quickly but the OFF signal was, the component essentially has a short-term memory of when it was switched on. Thus, going from ON to OFF, both proteins would be present for a short time. This would not be seen going from OFF to ON as the OFF protein would be degraded quickly. Therefore the presence of both the ON and OFF signals could be used to indicate that a component has just switched itself off, acting as a trigger for the switching mechanism of the next component in the system. Any thoughts on how practical an idea like this is?
- YES! I think it makes good sense. So bacteria of the next bit only change state when they see both ON and OFF proteins present from previous toggle switch, yeah? (and that's when previous bacteria change from ON to OFF, yes?) But I just what to clarify one thing, when you said "the component essentially has a short-term memory of when it was switched on", you meant the component as the toggle switch not the bacteria that's holding the timing information right? (Because each bacteria (apart from B0) must have a long-term memory of its current state (i.e. timing bit), either it's ON or it's OFF, until its previous toggle switch tells it to change state.) I'm looking forward to hearing more of your explainations at the meeting.
