A critical feature of all cellular processes is the ability to control the rate of gene or protein expression and metabolic flux in changing environments through regulatory feedback. We review the many ways that regulation is represented through causal, logical, and dynamical components. Formalizing the nature of these components promotes effective comparison among distinct regulatory networks and provides a common framework for the potential design and control of regulatory systems in synthetic biology.
Keywords: Codes; Feedback; Memory; Typed I/O maps.