| In undergrad I made models of oscillator genes. They allow for digital cycle counting. They can also be chained to give base-2 counting systems. For example, cycle of gene A turns on gene B be turns off itself, one cycle of gene B turns on gene C, turns on gene A and turns off itself, etc. This would give you a binary counter.
Assuming they all oscillate the same frequency, you would get something like: +-------+---+---+---+---+ | Cycle | A | B | C | D | +-------+---+---+---+---+ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +-------+---+---+---+---+ | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +-------+---+---+---+---+ | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +-------+---+---+---+---+ | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +-------+---+---+---+---+ | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | +-------+---+---+---+---+ And then if gene D triggers flowering: Tada! you would get one flowering every 5 cycles.
In practice things are never this simple. The gene expression rules are not that straightforward, the genes do not all express in the same cycles, you need some mechanism to keep things in sync between cells and plants etc. But the simplified model shows how powerful oscillator genes with expression switches can be. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Oscillating_gene |