Gene Regulation

Gene regulation is important in all organisms. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms constantly turn on and off their genes in response to internal and external environmental conditions.

Early gene regulation conserves more energy compared to regulation in later stages. For example, selective blocking of transcription is much more energy efficient than waiting for the transcription and translation process to finish before finally degrading or inhibiting the protein. In prokaryotic organisms, gene expression is generally regulated during the transcription stage using operons. An operon is a cluster of genes with a single promoter that can be regulated by positive and negative controls.

Eukaryotic gene regulation

Most eukaryotic organisms are multicellular and are comprised of a variety of cells with different functions, regardless of having the same genome. To create different cell types, eukaryotic organisms rely on gene regulation. Gene regulation is important for maintaining the proper specialized functions of each cell. In eukaryotic organisms, gene regulation can occur at different stages:

Figure 1. Different steps of gene regulation in an eukaryotic cell. In eukaryotic cells, gene regulation can occur at different stages: (A, B) Before transcription via chromatin modifications, (C) during transcription through RNA processing, (D) after transcription by mRNA degradation, and (E, F) during and after translation.