Fig. 5: Performance analysis of the four constructs with the open loop, the trans, the cis, and the layered feedback controls in living E. coli cells with an impulse transcriptional perturbation caused by inducer wash.

a Dynamical profile of four network architectures with n data traces, where n = number of biological replicates. In an individual heat map, each row represents the disturbance dynamics of each liquid culture well. Each column represents the measurements at a given time point. The color intensity indicates the absolute magnitude of output caused by the input disturbance. b The metrics used to extrapolate speed and robustness from experimental data. c Speed comparison of the four network designs measured in settling time. d Robustness comparison of the four network designs measured in percentage disturbance peak. Data in c, d are presented with standard box plots overlaying all individual data points. Box plots show centre line as median, box limits as upper and lower quartiles, whiskers as minimum to maximum values. The asterisks denote statistical significance between the two groups, determined by paired one-tail Student's t-tests. Additional statistical information is listed in Supplementary Table 8. e The robustness-speed performance of the four constructs under inducer chemical wash perturbation is presented in trade-off plots. Each dot renders the robustness-speed performance of individual cell culture; each shaded area represents the robustness-speed performance within one standard deviation. The distance of each point to the origin quantifies the robustness-speed performance of an individual test culture. The D-values denote the average performance of its corresponding group. The value P_{layered−trans} denotes the p-value between the layered control and the trans control, and P_{layered−cis} denotes the p-value between the layered control and the cis control. p-values are determined by the paired one-tail Student' t-test with n samples. n = number of biologically independent replicates.