Team:Kyoto

Every organism has its own cycle such as the periodicity of cell division, ordered patterns of its body. Some kinds of the cycles are known to be regulated just by two factors. Using E. coli, we applied this principle at intracellular and intercellular levels.

Firstly, we focused on oscillation regulated by RNA. We suspected that if RNA world hypothesis is correct, there could be intracellular oscillatory system without any protein. To show the possibility of cycle formation by RNA, we constructed an oscillator based on the principle by utilizing two different types of functional RNA, which are transcriptional activator and repressor.

Secondly, we also targeted on planar oscillation forming mechanism. A. Turing (1952) suggested a simple principle containing just two variables explains many organisms’ epidermal pattern formation. However, it is not confirmed the pattern formation is only based on Turing’s discourses. To check this, we used two types of E. coli, which secrete different factors, and regulated their population.