Entrainment of a Population of Synthetic Genetic Oscillators

Biological clocks are self-sustained oscillators that adjust their phase to the daily environmental cycles in a process known as entrainment. Molecular dissection and mathematical modeling of biological oscillators have progressed quite far, but quantitative insights on the entrainment of clocks are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2011-09, Vol.333 (6047), p.1315-1319
Main Authors: Mondragón-Palomino, Octavio, Danino, Tal, Selimkhanov, Jangir, Tsimring, Lev, Hasty, Jeff
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arabinose - metabolism
Bacteria
Biochemistry
Biological and medical sciences
Biological clocks
Biological Clocks - genetics
Biological Clocks - physiology
Cells
Computer applications
Computer Simulation
Determinism
Escherichia coli - genetics
Feedback (Response)
Feedback, Physiological
Fluorescence
Forced vibration
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Regulatory Networks
General aspects
Genes
Genes, araC
Green Fluorescent Proteins
Lac Repressors - genetics
Mathematical Models
Mathematics in biology. Statistical analysis. Models. Metrology. Data processing in biology (general aspects)
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques
Modeling
Models, Biological
Molecular and cellular biology
Oscillators
Parametric models
Population genetics
Probability distributions
Single-Cell Analysis
Stochastic models
Synthetic Biology - methods
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Summary:Biological clocks are self-sustained oscillators that adjust their phase to the daily environmental cycles in a process known as entrainment. Molecular dissection and mathematical modeling of biological oscillators have progressed quite far, but quantitative insights on the entrainment of clocks are relatively sparse. We simultaneously tracked the phases of hundreds of synthetic genetic oscillators relative to a common external stimulus to map the entrainment regions predicted by a detailed model of the clock. Synthetic oscillators were frequency-locked in wide intervals of the external period and showed higher-order resonance. Computational simulations indicated that natural oscillators may contain a positive-feedback loop to robustly adapt to environmental cycles.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1205369