Sudoku

Perspective

4C3 leak switch, which we proposed SUDOKU, is the switch which provides arbitrary three of four number information in arbitrary order and enables a reading out of remaining number information. In addition to this, signal transmission virus & antisense RNA system enable a destination-restricted arbitrary enzyme information transmission. These systems have a great application potentiality.

First, the number of inputs can be freely altered by extending our system. As a simple example, one can create a 9C8 leak switch that solves a 9x9 Sudoku puzzle. In the same way, we can theoretically create nCm switches as long as the strength of the terminators is regulated. Our switch is very complex compared with AND/OR gates or the toggle switch, and has broad applicability.

The switch utilizes the irreversibility of DNA recombination at each step, so once the switch turns on, will receive no more signals, making it very robust. Namely, this switch is a very flexible and robust one, so it can be applied in many fields. For example, once the information entered, the state of switch was changed, and once the state was altered, it will never return, and loose sensitivity to other information. Such properties are also observed during the differentiation of cells in eukaryotic development and make our switch a possible candidate as a model for such processes.

Secondly, the signal virus and antisense RNA systems enable network construction using microbes such as E.coli as units. Information transmission systems using existing chemical substances were not able to restrict information transmission between E.coli cells, but in this system, this becomes possible. In information transmission system such as conjugation, it was difficult to transmit information from one cell to multiple E.coli cells simultaneously, but this system allows for the transmission to a large number of cells.

In addition, the information carried by the virus can be diverse by encoding an arbitrary enzyme with a loading sequence on the mRNA.

Such a system is expected to enable E.coli to be used as elements of parallel calculation devices in the future.