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The lactose operon (lac operon) is an operon required for the transport and metabolism of lactose in E. coli and many other enteric bacteria.Although glucose is the preferred carbon source for most enteric bacteria, the lac operon allows for the effective digestion of lactose when glucose is not available through the activity of β-galactosidase. [1]
Galactoside permease is a protein coded by the lacY gene of the lac operon, and is found bound to the membrane of a cell for the purpose of binding galactoside molecules that have been solubilized. The protein is part of a system whose main function is to catalyze the accumulation and transport of lactose and other beta-galactosides across the ...
The lac operon of the model bacterium Escherichia coli was the first operon to be discovered and provides a typical example of operon function. It consists of three adjacent structural genes, a promoter, a terminator, and an operator. The lac operon is regulated by several factors including the availability of glucose and lactose.
The LacY gene is a component of the lac operon that encodes lactose permease, a protein responsible for breaking down lactose into glucose and galactose, alongside transacetylase and beta galactosidase. The absence of lactose permease leads to the inability of lactose to enter the cell for further metabolic processes.
The enzyme's role in the classical E.coli lac operon remains unclear. [1] [3] However, the enzyme's cellular role may be to detoxify non-metabolizable pyranosides by acetylating them and preventing their reentry into the cell. [1] [4]
The lac repressor (LacI) is a DNA-binding protein that inhibits the expression of genes coding for proteins involved in the metabolism of lactose in bacteria. These genes are repressed when lactose is not available to the cell, ensuring that the bacterium only invests energy in the production of machinery necessary for uptake and utilization of ...
The first natural gene circuit studied in detail was the lac operon. In studies of diauxic growth of E. coli on two-sugar media, Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob discovered that E.coli preferentially consumes the more easily processed glucose before switching to lactose metabolism. They discovered that the mechanism that controlled the ...
E. coli is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobe, nonsporulating coliform bacterium. [18] Cells are typically rod-shaped, and are about 2.0 μm long and 0.25–1.0 μm in diameter, with a cell volume of 0.6–0.7 μm 3. [19] [20] [21] E. coli stains gram-negative because its cell wall is composed of a thin peptidoglycan layer and an outer membrane.