Template:Team:KULeuven/Components/Vanillin Receptor

The vanillin receptor senses the vanillin concentration outside the cell. This information is needed to create the feedback loop that controls vanillin synthesis. The receptor consists of two proteins: virA and virG. In the presence of vanillin, virA binds a phosphor and transfers it to virG. In turn, the phosphorylated VirG binds to a so-called vir box sequence, triggering transcription of antikey. The more antikey is produced, the more it can anneal to the key and the less vanillin is produced. This process goes on until there’s an equilibrium between measured and wanted concentration.