MBG 2040 Chapter 18: Chapter 18 - Textbook and Lecture
Document Summary
Regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes: an overview. Levels at which gene expression is regulated in prokaryotes: transcription: dna to rna transcript, rna processing: rna transcript to mrna, translation: mrna to protein, post-translation: protein to function performed by the protein. Transcription is the most important step of regulation of gene expression. A bacterium lives in an ever changing environment. The purpose of gene regulation in bacteria is primarily for better adaption to this ever changing environment they are in. Genes whose products are not needed are in general not expressed ( or only expressed at very low levels) unless environmental conditions change in a way that makes their expression useful (bacteria are experts at conservation) Regulated genes (those that are inducible or repressible): products of other genes are required for cell growth only under certain environmental conditions, regulatory mechanisms (induction and repression) allow the expression of these genes only when they are needed.