Control of Gene Expression Garland Science（科学控制基因表达的花环）.pdf

CHAPTER EIGHT 8 Control of Gene Expression An organism’s DNA encodes all of the RNA and protein molecules that are AN OVERVIEW OF GENE needed to make its cells. Yet a complete description of the DNA sequence EXPRESSION of an organism—be it the few million nucleotides of a bacterium or the few billion nucleotides in each human cell—does not enable us to recon- struct the organism any more than a list of all the English words in a HOW TRANSCRIPTIONAL dictionary enables us to reconstruct a play by Shakespeare. We need to SWITCHES WORK know how the elements in the DNA sequence or the words on a list work together to make the masterpiece. THE MOLECULAR In cell biology, the question comes down to gene expression . Even the sim- MECHANISMS THAT CREATE plest single-celled bacterium can use its genes selectively—for example, SPECIALIZED CELL TYPES switching genes on and off to make the enzymes needed to digest what- ever food sources are available. And, in multicellular plants and animals, gene expression is under even more elaborate control. Over the course of POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL embryonic development, a fertilized egg cell gives rise to many cell types CONTROLS that differ dramatically in both structure and function. The differences between a mammalian neuron and a lymphocyte, for example, are so extreme that it is difficult to imagine that the two cells contain the same DNA (Figure 8–1). For this reason, and because cells in an adult organism rarely lose their distinctive characteristics, biologists originally suspected that genes might be selectively lost when a cell becomes specialized. We now know, however, that