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Blue Light Receptor: Design

The purpose of the receptor is to enter the wanted vanillin concentration. The protein YcgF is a known blue-light sensor in certain E. coli strains. Upon photo-excitation it dimerizes and acts as an anti-repressor for YcgE. YcgE is bound to the promotor-region of the key-gene and inhibits RNA Polymerase. The dimerized YcgF interacts directly with the repressor, releasing it from the DNA and allowing transcription. The light used to perform the test has a wavelength of 470nm.

We designed the part in such way that irradiation with a certain amount of blue light activates transcription of RIBOKEY-mRNA. To achieve this, we purified the promoter-region of the E. coli- strain MC4100. After mutating out possible restriction sites, the blr promoter part () was added to the registry.