2.9 How Genes are Regulated
For a cell to function properly, necessary proteins must be synthesized at the proper time. All organisms and cells control or regulate the transcription and translation of their DNA into protein. The process of turning on a gene to produce RNA and protein is called gene expression. Whether in a simple unicellular organism or in an individual cell of a complex multicellular organism, each cell controls when and how its genes are expressed. For this to occur, there must be a mechanism to control when a gene is expressed to make RNA and protein, how much of the protein is made, and when it is time to stop making that protein because it is no longer needed.
Cells in multicellular organisms are specialized; cells in different tissues look very different and perform different functions. For example, a muscle cell is very different from a liver cell, which is very different from a skin cell. These differences are a consequence of the expression of different sets of genes in each of these cells. All cells have certain basic functions they must perform for themselves, such as converting the energy in sugar molecules into energy in ATP. Each cell also has many genes that are not expressed, and expresses many that are not expressed by other cells, such that it can carry out its specialized functions. In addition, cells will turn on or off certain genes at different times in response to changes in the environment or at different times during the development of the organism. Unicellular organisms also turn on and off genes in response to the demands of their environment so that they can respond to special conditions.
The control of gene expression is extremely complex. Malfunctions in this process are detrimental to the cell and can lead to the development of many diseases, including cancer.
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Gene Expression
To understand how gene expression is regulated, we must first understand how a gene becomes a functional protein in a cell. In simple organisms like bacteria, the primary method to control what type and how much protein is expressed is through the regulation of DNA transcription into RNA. Animal cells, in contrast, have intracellular organelles and are much more complex. Recall that in complex cells, the DNA is contained inside the cell’s nucleus and it is transcribed into mRNA there. The newly synthesized mRNA is then transported out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm, where ribosomes translate the mRNA into protein. The processes of transcription and translation are physically separated by the nuclear membrane; transcription occurs only within the nucleus, and translation only occurs outside the nucleus in the cytoplasm. The regulation of gene expression can occur at all stages of the process (Figure 1). Regulation may occur when the DNA is uncoiled and loosened from nucleosomes to bind transcription factors (epigenetic level), when the RNA is transcribed (transcriptional level), when RNA is processed and exported to the cytoplasm after it is transcribed (post-transcriptional level), when the RNA is translated into protein (translational level), or after the protein has been made (post-translational level).
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Section Summary
While all somatic cells within an organism contain the same DNA, not all cells within that organism express the same proteins. Simple organisms like bacteria express the entire DNA they encode in every cell, but not necessarily all at the same time. Proteins are expressed only when they are needed. Complex organisms express a subset of the DNA that is encoded in any given cell. In each cell type, the type and amount of protein is regulated by controlling gene expression. To express a protein, the DNA is first transcribed into RNA, which is then translated into proteins. In simple cells, these processes occur almost simultaneously. In animal cells, transcription occurs in the nucleus and is separate from the translation that occurs in the cytoplasm. In animal cells, gene expression is regulated at the epigenetic, transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational, and post-translational levels.
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Glossary
- epigenetic
- describing non-genetic regulatory factors, such as changes in modifications to histone proteins and DNA that control accessibility to genes in chromosomes
- gene expression
- processes that control whether a gene is expressed
- post-transcriptional
- control of gene expression after the RNA molecule has been created but before it is translated into protein
- post-translational
- control of gene expression after a protein has been created
