Departamento de Física, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles, Spain.
Chaos. 2009 Sep;19(3):033139. doi: 10.1063/1.3231089.
We propose a new approach for synchronizing a population of synthetic genetic oscillators, which consists in the entrainment of a colony of repressilators by external modulation. We present a model where the repressilator dynamics is affected by periodic changes in temperature. We introduce an additional plasmid in the bacteria in order to correlate the temperature variations with the enhancement of the transcription rate of a certain gene. This can be done by introducing a promoter that is related to the heat shock response. This way, the expression of that gene results in a protein that enhances the overall oscillations. Numerical results show coherent oscillations of the population for a certain range of the external frequency, which is in turn related to the natural oscillation frequency of the modified repressilator. Finally we study the transient times related with the loss of synchronization and we discuss possible applications in biotechnology of large-scale production coupled to synchronization events induced by heat shock.
我们提出了一种新的方法来同步一群合成遗传振荡器，它由外部调制来驯化一群阻遏子。我们提出了一个模型，其中阻遏子的动态受到温度周期性变化的影响。我们在细菌中引入一个额外的质粒，以便将温度变化与某个基因的转录率增强相关联。这可以通过引入一个与热激反应相关的启动子来实现。这样，该基因的表达会产生一种蛋白质，从而增强整体振荡。数值结果表明，在外部频率的一定范围内，群体呈现出相干振荡，而外部频率又与修饰后的阻遏子的自然振荡频率有关。最后，我们研究了与同步丢失相关的瞬态时间，并讨论了在生物技术中与热休克诱导的同步事件相结合的大规模生产的可能应用。
