ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a brief introduction to the biology and biochemistry necessary to understand genetic circuits. Obviously, the material covered in this chapter is quite basic as it is usually the topic of whole courses. It should, however, give the grounding necessary to begin studying the modeling, analysis, and design of genetic circuits. This chapter begins with a discussion of chemical reactions, the basic mech-
anism used by all life processes. Section 1.2 describes the basic building blocks of life, macromolecules. Section 1.3 describes genomes which store the instructions for all life’s processes. Section 1.4 presents cells and their structure. Section 1.5 introduces the genetic circuits used by cells to regulate the production of proteins within cells. Section 1.6 describes viruses. Finally, Section 1.7 presents our running example, the genetic circuit from the phage λ virus that controls its choice of developmental pathway.
