Concept 33 Genes can be turned on and off.
Walter Gilbert
Walter Gilbert was the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and is now Chairman of the Harvard Society of Fellows. In 1980, he won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on DNA sequencing.
- Before Jacob and Monod, people thought the amount of protein in a cell was constant and proteins turned themselves off.
- Jacob and Monod discovered that genes control the amount of protein in a cell.
- Where did the idea of negative control come from?
- How Jacob and Monod showed the existence of the inhibitor (what Gilbert calls the repressor).
- Jacob and Monod never identified the inhibitor, but Gilbert found it.
- What we know about gene regulation today.
- To explain their data, Jacob and Monod had to hypothesize the existence of mRNA.
DNA is packaged in a chromosome.
Higher cells incorporate an ancient chromosome.
Some DNA does not encode protein.
Some DNA can jump.
Genes can be turned on and off.
Genes can be moved between species.
DNA responds to signals from outside the cell.
Different genes are active in different kinds of cells.
Master genes control basic body plans.
Development balances cell growth and death.
A genome is an entire set of genes.
Living things share common genes.
DNA is only the beginning for understanding the human genome.