Team:Rice/Model/ORibosomesMinimal

Orthogonal Expression

Overview

Our model incorporates the transcription of orthogonal 16S rRNAs that bind to ribosomal proteins to form orthogonal ribosomes. These orthogonal ribosomes can be restricted to translate only mRNAs from circuit genes. We have the equations for the orthogonal T7 RNA polymerases on the polymerase addition page.

Explanation

Orthogonal ribosomes are composed of two parts: host ribosomal proteins (pR) and orthogonal 16S rRNA (rO). The orthogonal rRNA is transcribed just like the host rRNA, with a maximum transcription rate of wO and a transcription energy threshold of oO. These rRNAs degrade at the same rate as all other RNAs, with a rate constant of dr. The orthogonal rRNAs bind to the host ribosomal proteins in a reversible fashion, effectively functioning as competitive inhibitors of the binding of host rRNAs. The orthogonal ribosomes formed only bind to circuit mRNAs (mC) upon which they form a translation complex cC and generate circuit proteins. Because the orthogonal rRNAs bind to host ribosomal proteins pR, we need to also modify the differential equation governing pR.

Equations