Design of a molecular clock with RNA-mediated regulation

Abstract

We design a new negative feedback molecular oscillator and study its properties analytically and numerically. This oscillator is composed of two synthetic genes interconnected through their RNA outputs. Regulation of the genes activity is achieved by controlling the activity of the enzymes rather than the activity of the promoters. We show that a simple model of this system has the potential to oscillate for appropriate choices of the parameters. Our design can be built experimentally using RNA aptamers.