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Template:Team:KULeuven/Components/Key Lock Antikey
From 2009.igem.org
Key Lock Antikey
The key and antikey system perform a subtraction of the blue light signal and the vanillin receptor signal. The result controls the vanillin production. In biological terms, the subtraction translates as the annealing of complementary RNA strands, the key and the antikey. This reaction is favoured over the reaction between the key and the lock leading to vanillin synthesis. This way we try to perform the subtraction before inducing production of vanillin.
The biological equivalent of a subtraction can only yield a positive number, so one can only subtract a small from a large amount. Because we can only actively produce vanillin, we have to subtract the measured quantity of vanillin from the wanted quantity, or in other words, the amount of antikey produced by the vanillin receptor from the amount of key produced by the blue light sensor.
