BIOL 1101 Chapter 14: Chapter 14

• School: University of Windsor
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIOL 1101
• Professor: Dora Cavallo

Document Summary

Fran ois jacob and jacques monod of the pasteur institute in pairs proposed the operon model for the control of the expression of genes for lactose metabolism in e. coli. Subsequently, data have shown the operon model to be widely applicable to the regulation of gene expression in bacteria and their viruses. An operon is a cluster of prokaryotic genes and the dna sequences involved in their regulation. The promoter, as we saw previously, is a region where the rna polymerase begins transcription. Another regulatory dna sequence in the operon is the operator, a short segment that is a binding sequence for a regulatory protein. A gene that is separate form the operon encodes the regulatory protein. Some operons are controlled by a regulatory protein termed a repressor, which, when bound to the dna, reduces the likelihood that genes will be transcribed.