Synthetic gene networks

Even though Eq. (5) is more realistic than Eq. (3) as a model for biological systems, this equation still is highly oversimplified. Yet this equation has remarkable mathematical properties that facilitate theoretical analysis. Moreover, there is an expectation, demonstrated in some simple examples like those discussed above, that the qualitative dynamics in the model system wiU be preserved in more realistic versions, for example when the discontinuous step functions are replaced by continuous sigmoidal functions [33, 34, 37]. As mentioned above, synthetic gene networks have been created that show some of the simple types of dynamical behavior found in our class of networks—in particular, bistability (two fixed points) [26] and oscillation in an inhibitory loop [27]. 

Friedland, A.E. etal. (2009) Synthetic gene networks that count Science, 324 (5931), 1199-1202. 

Keywords Metabohc engineering Standardization, orthogonality and modularity Synthetic and systems biology Synthetic gene networks Synthetic promoter libraries... 

Nat Protoc Exchange http //www.nature.com/protocolexchange/protocols/561 Ellis T, Wang X, Collins JJ (2009) Diversity-based, model-guided construction of synthetic gene networks with predicted functions. Nat Biotechnol 27 465-471 Ellis T, Adie T, Baldwin GS (2011) DNA assembly for synthetic biology from parts to pathways and beyond. Integr Biol 3 109-118... 

Lu TK, Khalil AS, CoUins JJ (2009) Next-generation synthetic gene networks. Nat Biotechnol 27 1139-1150... 

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