Time-delay genetic circuit

In nature, a fundamental “device” in gene regulation circuits is time-delay responses to internal or external stimuli. These devices are involved in essential patterns such as oscillating systems, circadian clocks, cell differentiation and development, for mention some (1). Time-delay circuits have the capability to integrate signals and trigger events after a delay from the initial detection event. There are two approaches to construct a time delay genetic circuit, these are: 1) protein-based transcriptional regulators and 2) RNA-based post-transcriptional regulators (2). In order to gain a better understanding on how certain genetic circuits are build and how they work to derive in complex responses upon stimuli, in the field of synthetic biology, the reconstruction of genetic circuits is one of the more investigate topics. Specially, experiments focused on transcriptional regulation components are relatively well understood and easy to emulate. Although circuits based on transcriptional networks can provide complex behaviors, as the complexity increases it is clear that many natural circuits are not only transcriptional driven but they are controller in other levels such as post-transcriptional regulation (3).

Based on different literature and the requirements of the project, two genetic configurations, one protein-based and other RNA-based, have been considered which will deliver a time-delay genetic circuit.

• Why?

• How?

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