Regulation of gene expression

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Gene modulation redirects here. For information on therapeutic regulation of gene expression, see therapeutic gene modulation.

Regulation of gene expression (or gene regulation) includes the processes that cells and viruses use to turn the information in genes into gene products. Although a functional gene product may be an RNA or a protein, the majority of known mechanisms regulate protein coding genes. Any step of the gene's expression may be modulated, from DNA-RNA transcription to the post-translational modification of a protein.

Gene regulation is essential for viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes as it increases the versatility and adaptability of an organism by allowing the cell to express protein when needed. The first discovered example of a gene regulation system was the lac operon, discovered by Jacques Monod, in which protein involved in lactose metabolism are expressed by E.coli only in the presence of lactose and absence of glucose.

Furthermore, gene regulation drives the processes of cellular differentiation and morphogenesis, leading to the creation of different cell types in multicellular organisms where the different types of cells may possess different gene expression profiles though they all possess the same genome sequence.

For more information about Regulation of gene expression, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with gene regulation


New research into the mechanisms of gene regulation

New research into the mechanisms of gene regulation

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by Penn State's Ross Hardison, T. Ming Chu Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has taken a large step toward unraveling how regulatory proteins control the production ...


Technique finds gene regulatory sites without knowledge of regulators

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A new statistical technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois allows scientists to scan a genome for specific gene-regulatory regions without requiring prior knowledge of the relevant transcription factors. ...





Search results for gene regulation


Gene knockout may cheer up mice

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Removing the PKCI/HINT1 gene from mice has an anti-depressant-like and anxiolytic-like effect. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience applied a battery of behavioral tests to the PKCI/HINT1 knocko ...


Hebrew University, US scientists find clue to mystery of biological clock

Scientists find clue to mystery of biological clock

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

How does our biological system know that it is supposed to operate on a 24-hour cycle? Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that a tiny molecule holds the clue to the mystery.


Can cleft palate be healed before birth?

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

In a study newly published in the journal Development, investigators at the USC School of Dentistry describe how to non-surgically reverse the onset of cleft palate in fetal mice - potentially one step in the journey to a b ...


Heart failure linked to gene variant affecting vitamin D activation

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Previous studies have shown a link between low vitamin D status and heart disease. Now a new study shows that patients with high blood pressure who possess a gene variant that affects an enzyme critical to normal vitamin ...


The protein Srebp2 drives cholesterol formation in prion-infected neuronal cells

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Prions are causing fatal and infectious diseases of the nervous system, such as the mad cow disease (BSE), scrapie in sheep or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität ...


Tiny RNA has big impact on lung cancer tumors

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers from Yale University and Mirna Therapeutics, Inc., reversed the growth of lung tumors in mice using a naturally occurring tumor suppressor microRNA. The study reveals that a tiny bit of RNA may one day play a ...


Acute stress leaves epigenetic marks on the hippocampus

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are learning that the dynamic regulation of genes -- as much as the genes themselves -- shapes the fate of organisms. Now the discovery of a new epigenetic mechanism regulating genes in the brain ...


Why Some Monkeys Don't Get AIDS

Why Some Monkeys Don't Get AIDS

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green ...


New study describes connections between Circadian and metabolic systems

Biology / Other

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A paper by University of Notre Dame biologist Giles Duffield and a team of researchers offers new insights into a gene that plays a key role in modulating the body's Circadian system and may also simultaneously modulate its ...


Feeding the clock

Feeding the clock: Cycles of feeding and fasting drive circadian gene expression in the liver

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

When you eat may be just as vital to your health as what you eat, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their experiments in mice revealed that the daily waxing and waning of thousands ...



List of search results for gene regulation