OPERON

Ms. Rima Dessai

Regulation of gene Expression in Prokaryotes

▪ A typical bacterial cell contains several thousand genes

▪ Different genes in an organism code for the synthesis of different

proteins/enzymes

▪ All enzymes are not needed all the time, cells regulate production in
order to use resources efficiently.

▪ They can either “turn on” or “turn off “ the expression of certain
genes.
 Constitutive Genes

Housekeeping/Constitutive Genes
Certain gene products such as t RNA molecules , rRNA molecules , RNA polymerase
components and enzymes catalysing different metabolic reactions are required for growth of
cells in all environments.

Such genes are important to the life of the cell and hence they remain active at all the times.

Such genes have essentially constant levels of expression in all conditions over time.

Such genes are said to be expressed constitutively /Continuously and are referred to as
Constitutive genes / Housekeeping Genes

Ex : Genes encoding for Glycolysis

• Other gene Products are needed for cell growth only under certain environmental
conditions.

• Constitutive synthesis of such gene products would be waste of energy , as we

need to invest a lot of energy in the process of transcription and Translation.

Regulated Gene Expression:

• This Includes control of expression of genes whose protein products

increase/decrease under certain circumstances, referred to as
Inducible/Repressible Genes
 Gene Regulation
• Gene regulation is the phenomenon in which the level of gene expression can vary under
different conditions

• A key benefit of gene regulation is that the encoded proteins are produced only
when they are required. Therefore, the cell avoids wasting valuable energy making
proteins it does not need.

• Gene regulation is particularly important because bacteria exist in an environment that is

frequently changing with regard to temperature, nutrients, and many other factors.

• In Prokaryotes, Gene expression occurs at the level of Transcription

Operon

❖The basic concept of how gene regulation occurs at the level of transcription in
bacteria was provided by the classical model called as Operon Model.

❖It was formulated by Francis Jacob and Jacques Monad in 1961

❖An Operon is a unit of gene expression and regulation containing structural

genes, a common promoter ,operator and regulatory sequences recognized by
the regulatory gene product.

❖All the structural genes in an operon are expressed as a single unit i.e. to give
polycistronic mRNA.
 Operons
 An operon is a group of genes that are
transcribed at the same time.
 They usually control an important
biochemical process.
 They are only found in prokaryotes.
 Bacterial operons are polycistronic
transcripts that are able to produce
multiple proteins from one mRNA
transcript.
Jacob, Monod & Lwoff won the
Nobel prize in physiology in 1965 for
their work on lac operon.
Components of Operon
Components of Operon
• Structural Genes:
• These are those that produce RNA and Polypeptides. They determine
the structure of final gene product such as an enzyme/protein/Stable
RNA.
• Regulatory Genes: They regulate the functioning of Structural Genes.
• Operator – They have regulatory DNA Sequences other then
promoter, site for binding of repressor
• Promoter - RNA Polymerase binding site, regulatory DNA sequences
Working of Operon

Repressors: Regulatory proteins that bind to the sites of DNA called

Operators.
When bound to operator , repressor reduces transcription by blocking
RNA polymerase enzyme from moving toward the DNA

Activators :
Some regulatory proteins are activators.
When activator is bound to DNA binding site , it increases the rate of
transcription of the operon (RNA polymerase enzyme binds to the
promoter.)
 Gene Regulatory Proteins
• Prokaryotic transcriptional regulation is accomplished by gene
regulatory proteins which bind with regulatory sequences located near
the transcription start site of a transcription unit.
• Gene regulatory proteins, the products of regulatory genes, are of two
types – activator and repressor.

ACTIVATOR - Positive Regulation

• The binding of an activator to its target regulatory sequence (located
near the promoter) increases the rate of transcription.
• Such regulations are referred to as positive regulation because it is
required to increase the rate of transcription.
REPRESSOR - Negative Regulation
• The binding of the repressor to its target regulatory sequence (called
the operator, located near the transcription start site) prevents a gene
from being expressed.
• Because binding of a repressor prevents the gene expression, it is
referred to as negative regulation.
Role of Activator and Repressor
Inducible Operon

• Some operons are usually “off” but can be turned “on “ by a small molecule

called as inducer. Such operon is said to be inducible operon

• The process by which the expression of genes is turned on in the

presence of a substance is called as Induction.Gene whose expression is
so regulated are called as Inducible genes.The Substance responsible for
Induction is known as Inducer

• For eg: Lac Operon is an inducible operon.

Inducible Operon
• It encodes for enzymes required for the metabolism of lactose

• It is turned on when the sugar lactose is present(other preferred sugars are

absent)

• The inducer in this case is allolactose, a modified form of lactose

▪ Enzymes involved in catabolic or degradative pathways such as lactose , galactose

or arabinose utilization are inducible.

▪ Induction occurs at the level of transcription

Lac Operon
• E.coli cells growing in a medium containing lactose as a sole carbon source utilize

lactose as a carbon and energy source

• Lactose uptake and degradation is mediated by three structural genes

Lac Z - β galactosidase – cleaves the lactose molecule to yield glucose and

galactose

Lac Y - β galactosidase permease – transport lactose into the cell

Lac A - β galactosidase transacetylase – transfers acetyl group from acetyl –

CoA to B-galactosidase

• Synthesis of these enzymes requires energy in the form of ATP

Inducible and repressible operon
• Not all of the proteins a bacterial cell can produce are needed all times and also in
the same quantities.
INDUCIBLE SYSTEM
• Enzymes for breakdown of sugars such as lactose may not be required if lactose is
not present in the cell’s environment.
• If a given metabolite is not present, enzymes for its breakdown are not required,
and synthesizing these enzymes is wasteful.
• If the cell produces enzymes for the degradation of a particular compound only
when this compound is present in the environment, the system is known as an
inducible system.
• Genes that encode enzymes involved in catabolic pathways often are expressed only
in the presence of the substrates of the enzymes; their expression is inducible.
• The best-studied inducible system is the catabolic degradation of disaccharide
lactose in E. coli (Lac Operon).
Repressible Operon
• Some enzymes are usually “on” and can be turned off in the presence
of a small molecule called as corepressor. Such operon is said to be a
repressible operon.
• Example:
• Trp operon is a repressible operon

• Enzymes that are components of Anabolic or Biosynthetic pathways

Repressible Operon
❖ E.coli has 5 different genes coding for enzymes required for synthesis of Tryptophan Operon

❖These 5 genes are expressed in E.coli cells growing in an environment that is devoid of
tryptophan

❖Operon is expressed by default , can be repressed when high levels of tryptophan is present

❖When E.coli cells are growing in an environment containing tryptophan , synthesis of

tryptophan biosynthetic enzymes is turned off.

❖Corepressor in this case is tryptophan

❖The Process of turning off the expression of certain genes is called as Repression.
Trp Operon