Let’s suppose you have isolated a mutant strain of E. coli in which the lac operon is constitutively expressed. In other words, the operon is turned on in the presence or absence of lactose. One possibility is that the mutation mayblock the transcription of the lacI gene, thereby preventing the synthesis of lac repressor. A second possibility is that the mutation could alter the sequence of the lac operator in a way that prevents lac repressor from binding to the operator. How would you distinguish between these two possibilities?
Gene Interactions
When the expression of a single trait is influenced by two or more different non-allelic genes, it is termed as genetic interaction. According to Mendel's law of inheritance, each gene functions in its own way and does not depend on the function of another gene, i.e., a single gene controls each of seven characteristics considered, but the complex contribution of many different genes determine many traits of an organism.
Gene Expression
Gene expression is a process by which the instructions present in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are converted into useful molecules such as proteins, and functional messenger ribonucleic (mRNA) molecules in the case of non-protein-coding genes.
Let’s suppose you have isolated a mutant strain of E. coli in which the lac operon is constitutively expressed. In other words, the operon is turned on in the presence or absence of lactose. One possibility is that the mutation may
block the transcription of the lacI gene, thereby preventing the synthesis of lac repressor. A second possibility is that the mutation could alter the sequence of the lac operator in a way that prevents lac repressor from binding to the operator. How would you distinguish between these two possibilities?
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