Synthesising gene clock with toggle switch and oscillator.

The usefulness of a genetic clock lies in its role to stimulate a sequence of logic reactions for sequential biological circuits. A clock signal is a periodic square wave, its amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimal and maximal levels. Transition between the minimum and the maximum is instantaneous for an ideal square wave; however, the function is unrealisable in physical bio-systems. This research develops a new genetic clock generator based on a genetic oscillator, in which, a sine wave generator is adopted as a signal oscillator. It is shown that combination of a genetic oscillator with a toggle switch is able to generate clock signals forming an efficient way to generate a near square wave. In silico study confirms the proposed idea.