Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Synthetic biology

Biocircuits in synchrony

Nature volume 508, pages 326–327 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Cellular biocircuit design has taken a major step forward. The circuit reuses the cell's own protein-degradation system to synchronize the expression of two synthetic modules throughout an entire bacterial population. See Letter p.387

A major goal of synthetic biology is to build reliable, predictable networks of molecular and cellular components that can work as new biological devices capable of, for example, sensing chemicals, manufacturing drugs or even fighting disease. However, achieving such goals entails the production of complex synthetic biocircuits, which requires synchronization of multiple components. Although synchronization is well established in electronics1, synchronizing living cells is a major challenge, because it demands correlation of different phenomena that may be taking place on different temporal and spatial scales. On page 387 of this issue, Prindle et al.2 report that such coupling has been achieved in cells of the bacterium Escherichia coli.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Climbing up complexity in synthetic biology.

References

  1. Purnick, P. E. & Weiss, R. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell. Biol. 10, 410–422 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Prindle, A. et al. Nature 508, 387–391 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Oklobdzija, V. G. et al. Digital System Clocking: High-Performance and Low-Power Aspects (Wiley, 2003).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Danino, T., Mondragón-Palomino, O., Tsimring, L. & Hasty, J. Nature 463, 326–330 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Stricker, J. et al. Nature 456, 516–519 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Cookson, N. A. et al. Mol. Syst. Biol. 7, 561 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kwok, R. Nature 463, 288–290 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tamsir, A., Tabor, J. J. & Voigt, C. A. Nature 469, 212–215 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Regot, S. et al. Nature 469, 207–211 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Solé, R. V. & Macía, J. Nat. Comput. 12, 485–497 (2013).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ricard Solé and Javier Macía are in the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08003, Spain.,

    Ricard Solé & Javier Macía

Authors
  1. Ricard Solé
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Javier Macía
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ricard Solé or Javier Macía.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Solé, R., Macía, J. Biocircuits in synchrony. Nature 508, 326–327 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13224

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13224

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research