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Index >>Regulation of Protein Synthesis - Operon >>Regulation of Protein Synthesis - Operon

Regulation of Protein Synthesis

Regulation of Protein Synthesis - Operon

The total amount of DNA present in a cell may contain from a few to thousands of genes.

Although the different types of cells in the body of a multi cellular organism differ in structure and function, their genes are identical, since all the cells are ultimately derived from the zygote.

The problem therefore is how do cells with identical genetic complements differ so much in structure and function?

The answer is that not all genes are active at one time. As development proceeds certain genes become active while others become inactive,


i.e. the genes are "switched on" and "switched off" at different times.

This process is called differential gene action. When genes are active they direct the formation of enzymes which affect certain traits.

The metabolic products formed may repress synthesis of enzymes (feed-back or end product inhibition).

Thus enzyme synthesis is induced and repressed at different times.


Although a cell has the genes to produce hundreds of enzymes,

only the enzymes required at a particular time are produced.

This control mechanism ensures that the cell is not flooded with unnecessary enzymes.

A hypothesis to explain induction and repression of enzyme synthesis was first put forward by

Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod (1961) of the Institute Pasteur in Paris.

For this and some other major contributions in biochemistry Jacob and Monod were awarded  the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1965.

The scheme proposed by these workers is called the operon model, and has been considered to be the leading biological discovery of the present century, along with the elucidation of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick (1953).

The operon consists of the following components: regulator gene, promoter gene (a relatively recent concept), operator gene, structural genes, repressor, corepressor and inducer.

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