Gene expression (lectures 10 - 11) Flashcards
Why is gene expression regulated?
- helps microorganism used available nutrients
- cell differentiation is driven by gene expression
What are the 2 types of genes (in terms of gene expression)?
- continuously expressed gene (house keeping genes)
- inducible genes (only expressed at certain times)
What are the 2 types of mutations?
- Cis-acting mutations
- Trans-acting mutations
What are Cis mutations?
Mutation within the same gene
What are trans mutations?
Mutations in a different gene
What do cis mutations identify?
DNA/RNA sequences
What do trans mutations identify?
Protein or RNA factors that regulate gene expression
At what stage of protein synthesis does gene regulation occur?
Transcription level
What is the reason that transcriptional regulation occurs at the transcriptional level?
Limits wasteful production of biomolecules that aren’t needed
What is the name given to trans acting factors that cause activation?
“trans-acting activators”
What is the name given to trans acting factors that cause down regulation?
trans-acting repressors
At what location do activators promote gene expression?
Weak promoters
What do activators in E. coli bind to in order to promote DNA binding?
The a-subunit of RNA polymerase
E.coli gene promoters have conserved bipartite sequences. What does this mean?
Sequence which consists of 2 sequence blocks
What can enzyme coding genes be regulated by?
Substrate availability
What is the name given to substrates that upregulate enzyme activity?
Inducers
What is the name given to substrates that down regulate enzyme activity?
Corepressors
How can different type of pre-mRNA splicing affect the protein being produced?
There may be a productive & a non-productive pathway. The productive splicing pathway, may lead to a productive protein being created, whereas, the non-productive pathway will not.
What type of proteins are used to determine exon inclusion or exclusion?
Splicing activator or repressor proteins