Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of genetic material that functions in a coordinated manner by means of an operator, a promoter, and one or more structural genes that are transcribed together.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A unit of genetic material that functions in a coordinated manner by means of an operator, a promoter, and structural genes that are transcribed together.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a segment of DNA containing adjacent genes including structural genes and an operator gene and a regulatory gene

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[oper(ator) + –on.]

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Examples

  • In at least one case, IS elements activate an operon during starvation only if the substrate for that operon is present in the environment. (emphasis mine)

    Behe's Test 2008

  • It was largely the work of François Jacob and Jacques Monod and led, at the beginning of the 1960s, to the identification of messenger RNA as the mediator between genes and proteins, and to the description of a regulatory model of gene activation, the so called operon-model, in which two classes of genes became distinguished: One class was that of structural genes.

    Gene Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg 2009

  • Now, an operon is a little segment of DN A in a bacteria which codes for a couple of genes, and genes code for proteins, and the proteins usually have related functions or function as a group, and one of them is called the lac operon which is used to, the proteins of which are necessary for the bacterium Escherichia coli to metabolize a sugar called lactose, which is a milk sugar.

    Coopting cooption - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • Xia L, Zuber P (1991) Transcription initiation region of the srfA operon which is controlled by the comP-comA signal transduction system in

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2010

  • Xia L, Zuber P (1991) Transcription initiation region of the srfA operon which is controlled by the comP-comA signal transduction system in

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Michiko M. Nakano et al. 2010

  • Results from analysis of the gene sequence, reverse transcriptase PCR, and enzyme assays indicated that dntD dntE ORF13 dntG composes an operon that encodes the lower pathway.

    Casey Luskin on Kitzmiller & Information 2010

  • While mutations are random, doesn't Barry Hall's work strongly suggest that with the ebg operon the mechanism generating the mutations appears to be responding to environmental cues?

    Assessing Fault 2009

  • Jarrell 2007 Systematic deletion analyses of the fla genes in the flagella operon identify several genes essential for proper assembly and function of flagella in the archaeon, Methanococcus maripaludis.

    Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • Iino 1995 Functional analysis of the flagellar genes in the fliD operon of Salmonella typhimurium.

    Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • Other hand, we postulate that the duplicated gene is transferred through nichthomologe, intrachromosomal recombination in an operon of the secretion apparatus, so that would be at the same time the temporal expression control and perhaps the quantity produced so happens to be true to some extent.

    Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb 2010

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