Operons Questions

  • What is an operon?

    • Region consisting of promoter, operator, and related structural genes

  • What type of organisms have operons?

    • Prokaryotes (including bacteria)

  • What is the main function of an operon?

    • Related genes coding for enzymes of the same biochemical pathway can be turned on and off together (different from eukaryotes where one enhancer/repressor is assigned to a singular gene)

  • What is synthesized using the regulatory region? How is it synthesized? When is it synthesized?

    • The regulatory region codes for the repressor

      • gene in the regulatory region CODES for the transcription and translation of the repressor protein

    • Synthesized prior to the operon for which it regulates

  • What is an operator?

    • region that the repressor binds to to block RNA poly from transcription

  • Are repressor proteins always translated in active form?

    • F

  • Operons come in two flavors, what are they?

    • Inducible and Repressible

  • No

  • Yes

  • Why wouldn’t methylation be a good alternative to repressing an operon? Methylation is typically Permanent while the operon can be expressed or not expressed depending on the repressor status. This allows the operon to change very quickly depending on the cell’s needs.