A population-based microbial oscillator

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel population-level microbial oscillator using three bacterial strains and quorum sensing, demonstrating through simulations that it is feasible and robust for large-scale, distributed biological computing.

Contribution

It presents the first design of a population-based oscillator employing multiple bacterial strains and quorum sensing, expanding the scope of synthetic biological oscillators beyond intra-cellular systems.

Findings

Simulation confirms feasibility of the design

System demonstrates robustness in various conditions

Potential for large-scale biological computation

Abstract

Genetic oscillators are a major theme of interest in the emerging field of synthetic biology. Until recently, most work has been carried out using intra-cellular oscillators, but this approach restricts the broader applicability of such systems. Motivated by a desire to develop large-scale, spatially-distributed cell-based computational systems, we present an initial design for a population-level oscillator which uses three different bacterial strains. Our system is based on the client-server model familiar to computer science, and uses quorum sensing for communication between nodes. We present the results of extensive in silico simulation tests, which confirm that our design is both feasible and robust.