Contact: Dr. Y Mourzina, Institute of Thin Films and Interfaces, Research Centre Juelich, JUELICH, 52425, GERMANY

Multiple feedback loop design in the tryptophan regulatory network of Escherichia coli suggests a paradigm for robust regulation of processes in series by Professor M Bhartiya, Mr N Chaudhary, Professor V Venkatesh and Professor J Doyle III
The evolutionary process has resulted in complex working designs of organisms to survive in uncertain environments. These designs are characterized by numerous molecular interactions resulting in a network. The bacterium Escherichia coli is capable of producing an amino acid called tryptophan that is essential for its survival. The machinery of the tryptophan network consists of process units arranged in series, similar to an assembly line in a manufacturing plant. To regulate the quantity of tryptophan produced, the network uses three distinct feedback loops that transmit information to the upstream process units. Our study reveals that this specific multiple feedback loop design enables the bacterium to maintain rapid and stable production of tryptophan even in presence of large disturbances in the individual process units. This superior performance, arising from a design principle, is intrinsic and therefore inherent to any similarly designed system, either natural or engineered. The study reverse engineers the design principle of the bacterium by demonstrating its beneficial attributes on a physical system. These evolutionary designs can suggest new paradigms that may be of relevance in future engineering endeavours.

Contact: Professor V Venkatesh, Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Powai, MUMBAI, INDIA

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Continued

The human brain is a detector of chemosensorily transmitted HLA-class I-similarity in same- and oppos
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30-Nov-2005