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A typical operon. In genetics, an operon is a functioning unit of DNA containing a cluster of genes under the control of a single promoter. [1] The genes are transcribed together into an mRNA strand and either translated together in the cytoplasm, or undergo splicing to create monocistronic mRNAs that are translated separately, i.e. several strands of mRNA that each encode a single gene product.
Activator binds to an inducer and the complex binds to the activation sequence and activates target gene. [2] Removing the inducer stops transcription. [2] Because a small inducer molecule is required, the increased expression of the target gene is called induction. [2] The lactose operon is one example of an inducible system. [2]
The catabolite activator protein (CAP), otherwise known as cAMP receptor protein (CRP), activates transcription at the lac operon of the bacterium Escherichia coli. [5] Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is produced during glucose starvation; this molecule acts as an allosteric effector that binds to CAP and causes a conformational change ...
The lac operon: 1: RNA Polymerase, 2: lac repressor, 3: Promoter, 4: Operator, 5: Lactose, 6: lacZ, 7: lacY, 8: lacA. Top: The gene is essentially turned off.There is no lactose to inhibit the repressor, so the repressor binds to the operator, which obstructs the RNA polymerase from binding to the promoter and making lactase.
The lac operon in the prokaryote E. coli consists of genes that produce enzymes to break down lactose. Its operon is an example of a prokaryotic silencer. The three functional genes in this operon are lacZ, lacY, and lacA. [6] The repressor gene, lacI, will produce the repressor protein LacI which is under allosteric regulation.
If the repressor has a higher affinity for its motif than the activator, transcription would be effectively blocked in the presence of the repressor. Tight regulatory control is achieved by the highly dynamic nature of transcription factors. Again, many different mechanisms exist to control whether a transcription factor is active.
In prokaryotes, a well-known activator protein is the catabolite activator protein (CAP), involved in positive control of the lac operon. In the regulation of gene expression , studied in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), both activators and repressors play important roles.
For example, the E. coli tryptophan repressor (TrpR) is only able to bind to DNA and repress transcription of the trp operon when its corepressor tryptophan is bound to it. TrpR in the absence of tryptophan is known as an aporepressor and is inactive in repressing gene transcription. [ 2 ]