A Synthetic Oscillatory Network of Transciptional Regulators

Model Status

This CellML version of the model has been checked PCEnv and the model runs to replicate the original published results as depicted in figure 1c of the paper. The units have been checked and are consistent.

Model Structure

ABSTRACT: Networks of interacting biomolecules carry out many essential functions in living cells, but the 'design principles' underlying the functioning of such intracellular networks remain poorly understood, despite intensive efforts including quantitative analysis of relatively simple systems. Here we present a complementary approach to this problem: the design and construction of a synthetic network to implement a particular function.

We used three transcriptional repressor systems that are not part of any natural biological clock to build an oscillating network, termed the repressilator, in Escherichia coli. The network periodically induces the synthesis of green fluorescent protein as a readout of its state in individual cells. The resulting oscillations, with typical periods of hours, are slower than the cell-division cycle, so the state of the oscillator has to be transmitted from generation to generation. This artificial clock displays noisy behaviour, possibly because of stochastic fluctuations of its components. Such 'rational network design' may lead both to the engineering of new cellular behaviours and to an improved understanding of naturally occurring networks.

The complete original paper reference is cited below:

A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators, Michael B. Elowitz and Stanislas Leibler, 2000, Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science , 403, 335-338. (A PDF version of the article is available to subscribers on the journal website.) PubMed ID: 10659856

The repressilator network.