Analysis and control of genetic toggle switches subject to periodic multi-input stimulation
This work offers a modeling and control framework for synthetic biologists designing genetic circuits with periodic inputs.
The authors analyze a genetic toggle switch under pulse-width modulated inputs, providing an analytical model that qualitatively matches experimental observations and proposing a control strategy to regulate mean fluorescence.
In this letter, we analyze a genetic toggle switch recently studied in the literature where the expression of two repressor proteins can be tuned by controlling two different inputs, namely the concentration of two inducer molecules in the growth medium of the cells. Specifically, we investigate the dynamics of this system when subject to pulse-width modulated (PWM) input. We provide an analytical model that captures qualitatively the experimental observations reported in the literature and approximates its asymptotic behavior. We also discuss the effect that the system parameters have on the prediction accuracy of the model. Moreover, we propose a possible external control strategy to regulate the mean value of the fluorescence of the reporter proteins when the cells are subject to such periodic forcing.