How does a gene express itself?

Gene expression is the process by which the instructions in our dna are converted into a functional product, such as a protein.  It is considered  as both an on/off switch to control when proteins are made and, also a volume control that increases/decreases the amount of proteins made.

Explanation:

How does a gene, which consists of a string of DNA hidden in a cell's nucleus, know when it should express itself? How does this gene cause the production of a string of amino acids called a protein? How do different types of cells know which types of proteins they must manufacture?

Now, we turn to the usage of genes. Genes can't control an organism on their own; actually, they must interact with and respond to the organism's environment. Some genes are constitutive, or always "on," regardless of environmental conditions. Such genes are among the most important elements of a cell's genome, and they control the ability of DNA to replicate, express itself, and repair itself. These genes also control protein synthesis and much of an organism's central metabolism. In contrast, regulated genes are needed only occasionally, but how do these genes get turned "on" and "off"? What specific molecules control when they are expressed?

It turns out that the regulation of such genes differs between 2 different yotes: prokaryotes and eukaryotes. For prokaryotes, most regulatory proteins are negative and therefore turn genes off. Here, the cells rely on protein–small molecule binding, in which a ligand or small molecule signals the state of the cell and whether gene expression is needed. The repressor or activator protein binds near its regulatory target: the gene. Some regulatory proteins must have a ligand attached to them to be able to bind, whereas others are unable to bind when attached to a ligand. In prokaryotes, most regulatory proteins are specific to one gene, although there are a few proteins that act more widely. For instance, some repressors bind near the start of mRNA production for an entire operon, or cluster of coregulated genes. Furthermore, some repressors have a fine-tuning system known as attenuation, which uses mRNA structure to stop both transcription and translation depending on the concentration of an operon's end-product enzymes. (In eukaryotes, there is no exact equivalent of attenuation, because transcription occurs in the nucleus and translation occurs in the cytoplasm, making this sort of coordinated effect impossible.) Yet another layer of prokaryotic regulation affects the structure of RNA polymerase, which turns on large groups of genes. Here, the sigma factor of RNA polymerase changes several times to produce heat- and desiccation-resistant spores. Here, the articles on prokaryotic regulation delve into each of these topics, leading to primary literature in many cases.

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