Construction of a genetic AND gate under a new standard for assembly of genetic parts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Appropriate regulation of respective gene expressions is a bottleneck for the realization of artificial biological systems inside living cells. The modification of several promoter sequences is required to achieve appropriate regulation of the systems. However, a time-consuming process is required for the insertion of an operator, a binding site of a protein for gene expression, to the gene regulatory region of a plasmid. Thus, a standardized method for integrating operator sequences to the regulatory region of a plasmid is required.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a standardized method for integrating operator sequences to the regulatory region of a plasmid and constructed a synthetic promoter that functions as a genetic AND gate. By standardizing the regulatory region of a plasmid and the operator parts, we established a platform for modular assembly of the operator parts. Moreover, by assembling two different operator parts on the regulatory region, we constructed a regulatory device with an AND gate function.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We implemented a new standard to assemble operator parts for construction of functional genetic logic gates. The logic gates at the molecular scale have important implications for reprogramming cellular behavior.</p

Towards Parallel Evaluation and Learning of Boolean ...-Formulas with Molecules

A ¯--formula is a Boolean formula in which each variable occurs at most once. The paper treats its molecular representation including its queries using techniques in molecular biology. The novelty is that this method can evaluate a Boolean formula in a single tube within a short time. The preliminary experimental result suggests the possibility of parallel evaluation and learning of general ¯--formulas. This method is essentially a simulation of state transitions and can be used to simulate a decision tree or a state machine. 1 Introduction From the beginning of molecular computation, its parallelism is what theoretical analyses are concerned with and what researchers have tried to fully utilize in lab experiments. Despite the initial optimism, however, researchers came to know pros and cons of molecular operations [11]. The most unfavorable is the instability of lab operations susceptible to temperature, concentration and enzyme activity. Another hurdle is the difficulty in realizing..