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Chapter 14: Horizontal Gene Transfer and Operons

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    In 1954, French scientist and future Nobel laureate Jacques Monod (1910–1976) famously said, “What is true in E. coli is true in the elephant,” suggesting that the biochemistry of life was maintained throughout evolution and is shared in all forms of known life. Since Monod’s famous statement, we have learned a great deal about the mechanisms of gene regulation, expression, and replication in living cells. All cells use DNA for information storage, share the same genetic code, and use similar mechanisms to replicate and express it. Although many aspects of genetics are universally shared, variations do exist among contemporary genetic systems. We now know that within the shared overall theme of the genetic mechanism, there are significant differences among the three domains of life: Eukarya, Archaea, and Bacteria. Additionally, viruses, cellular parasites but not themselves living cells, show dramatic variation in their genetic material and the replication and gene expression processes. Some of these differences have allowed us to engineer clinical tools such as antibiotics and antiviral drugs that specifically inhibit the reproduction of pathogens yet are harmless to their hosts.

    Micrograph of rod shaped cell. Photo of elephants.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Escherichia coli (left) may not appear to have much in common with an elephant (right), but the genetic blueprints for these vastly different organisms are both encoded in DNA. (credit left: modification of work by NIAID; credit right: modification of work by Tom Lubbock)

    • Section 14.1: Mutations
      A mutation is a heritable change in the DNA sequence of an organism. The resulting organism, called a mutant, may have a recognizable change in phenotype compared to the wild type, which is the phenotype most commonly observed in nature. A change in the DNA sequence is conferred to mRNA through transcription, and may lead to an altered amino acid sequence in a protein on translation.
    • Section 14.2: How Asexual Prokaryotes Achieve Genetic Diversity
      How do organisms whose dominant reproductive mode is asexual create genetic diversity? In prokaryotes, horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the introduction of genetic material from one organism to another organism within the same generation, is an important way to introduce genetic diversity. HGT allows even distantly related species to share genes, influencing their phenotypes.
    • Section 14.3: Gene Regulation - Operon Theory
      Genomic DNA contains both structural genes, which encode products that serve as cellular structures or enzymes, and regulatory genes, which encode products that regulate gene expression. The expression of a gene is a highly regulated process. Whereas regulating gene expression in multicellular organisms allows for cellular differentiation, in single-celled organisms like prokaryotes, it ensures that a cell’s resources are not wasted making proteins that the cell does not need at that time.
    • Section 14.E: Mechanisms of Microbial Genetics (Exercises)

    Thumbnail: DNA Double Helix. (Public Domain; Apers0n).

    This page titled Chapter 14: Horizontal Gene Transfer and Operons is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ying Liu via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.