In vivoFeedback Control of an Antithetic Molecular-Titration Motif inEscherichia coliusing Microfluidics

SummaryWe study bothin silicoandin vivothe real-time feedback control of a molecular titration motif that has been earmarked as a fundamental component of antithetic and multicellular feedback control schemes inE. coli. We show that an external feedback control strategy can successfully regulate the average fluorescence output of a bacterial cell population to a desired constant level in real-time. We also providein silicoevidence that the same strategy can be used to track a time-varying reference signal where the set-point is switched to a different value halfway through the experiment. We use the experimental data to refine and parameterize anin silicomodel of the motif that can be used as an error computation module in future embedded or multicellular control experiments.