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The lactose operon (lac operon) is an operon required for the transport and metabolism of lactose in E. coli and many other enteric bacteria.Although glucose is the preferred carbon source for most enteric bacteria, the lac operon allows for the effective digestion of lactose when glucose is not available through the activity of β-galactosidase. [1]
The lac operon is a negatively controlled inducible operon, where the inducer molecule is allolactose. In negative repressible operons , transcription of the operon normally takes place. Repressor proteins are produced by a regulator gene , but they are unable to bind to the operator in their normal conformation.
In the absence of lactose, the constitutively expressed lac repressor protein binds to the operator region of the DNA and prevents the transcription of the operon genes. When present, lactose binds to the lac repressor, causing it to separate from the DNA and thereby enabling transcription to occur.
The inducer in the lac operon is allolactose. [2] If lactose is present in the medium, then a small amount of it will be converted to allolactose by a few molecules of β-galactosidase that are present in the cell. [3] Allolactose binds to the repressor and decreases the repressor's affinity for the operator site. [3]
The lac operon is used in the biotechnology industry for production of recombinant proteins for therapeutic use. The gene or genes for producing an exogenous protein are placed on a plasmid under the control of the lac promoter. Initially the cells are grown in a medium that does not contain lactose or other sugars, so the new genes are not ...
In E. coli, the lacZ gene is the structural gene for β-galactosidase; which is present as part of the inducible system lac operon which is activated in the presence of lactose when glucose level is low. β-Galactosidase synthesis stops when glucose levels are sufficient. [2] β-Galactosidase has many homologues based on similar sequences.
Taking advantage of an operon fusion placing the lac operon (responsible for producing beta-galactosidase, a protein which degrades lactose) under the control of an SOS-related protein, a simple colorimetric assay for genotoxicity is possible.
When referring to a promoter some authors actually mean promoter + operator; i.e., the lac promoter is IPTG inducible, meaning that besides the lac promoter, the lac operon is also present. If the lac operator were not present the IPTG would not have an inducible effect. [citation needed] Another example is the Tac-Promoter system (Ptac ...