Team:Imperial College London/Drylab/Autoinduction/Model3

Model Rationale

Several models have focused on inducing the lac operon using IPTG[1 (ref fro protein prod)] but not many have focused on induction by lactose.
The Keasling model in the system describes diauxic growth under the presence of glucose and lactose, and includes the different stages of metabolism of both sources. Here are the main points to remember:

• The lac operon is controlled by glucose at 2 levels: Inducer exclusion and catabolite repression.
  • Inducer exclusion: Relates to the constitutive expression of LacI repressor protein (see protein production pages for more on this), originally repressing the Lac operon.
  • Catabolite repression: Repression of cAMP by high levels of glucose present in the medium at the start of the culture, also preventing transcription of the lac operon.
• When glucose runs out, the lac operon is induced.
• When lactose is transported into the cell (by lac permease) and transformed into allolactose and other smaller chain length carbon sources by b-galactosidase.
• Glucose-6-phosphate amounts control the rate of growth of the cell culture.

Figure 2 from Zhao Lu et al

Model Assumptions

Model predictions

The actual model...