JACOB/MONOD: HOW THE REPRESSOR PROTEIN CONTROLS THE lac OPERON

The same processes that permit cellular control of metabolism also provide the means of regulating how genes are expressed. At the metabolic level, cellular compounds bind to specific enzymatic proteins, changing their shape and therefore their function. At the level of mRNA synthesis, a similar series of allosteric controls (enzymes) exists, regulating which genes are transcribed and to what extent.