Proteins for logical operations
2005/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
Physicists at the University of Cambridge have shown that it is possible to use protein groups to perform logical operations.
In these operations, in addition to proteins, other molecules intervene, the regulating ligants. These ligants are associated with specific protein sites and depending on their concentration the protein is activated or inactive.
Activation/deactivation states can be used to indicate 0 and 1 of binary logic. But proteins are not true logical gates, since to move from one situation to another a great change of concentration is required.
However, Cambridge's have shown that, since several proteins can bind two binders, they can perform all basic logical functions, including 'and', 'or', 'xor', etc. Proteins can function as elements of individual logic, since their outputs depend on two inputs, specifically ligant concentrations. Furthermore, when proteins are grouped into groups the response increases considerably.
All this has been shown theoretically, but the authors of the study give the bacterium E. coli as an example. This bacterium contains several proteins that bind to several ligants. The use of genetically modified fluorescent proteins reflects an important position change, since the bacteria are "lit".
