Team:HUST-China

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Auto-regulation parts are very commonly used regulation elements in gene networks which form kinds of biological process such as bio-oscillation, cell cycle, etc[1]. In nature, prokaryotic cells mostly employ negative feedback regulation to ensure their physiological homeostasis[2]. While in  eukaryotic cells, they commonly regulate their homeostasis with both negative and positive feedback[3]. The positive feedback systems, which underlie bi-stable or binary response in cells, are very important and powerful parts for synthetic biological research and development. In bi-stable system, transition between two stable states could occur when the system’s input parameters change. For example, the feedback system of cI/cro in bacteria phage γ triggers a binary switch that decides the fate of cells. Considering the functionality and significance of positive feedback to universal synthetic biology applications in bi-stable or even multi-stable systems, this year, HUST-China team tries to build a set of positive feedback fundamental tool kits for synthetic biology engineers. The systems we design will not only be adaptable to any input and output, but also can change its threshold to meet the requirement from different project purpose. As the positive feedback regulation system can transform an input pulse into stable states or outputs, it can also be applied as signal filter in circuits. Additionally, to make it a competent basic tool kits, we tries to provide both prokaryotic and eukaryotic versions, for synthetic biology engineers to compare and select for further application.

 

 

 

 

[1] Feedback control of intercellular signaling in development. Nature, 408, 313-319.

[2] From specific gene regulation to genomic networks: a global analysis of transcriptional regulation in E.coli. BioEssays, 20, 433-440.

[3] Autoregulation of eukaryotic transcription factors. Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Mol. Biol., 60, 133-168.