In: Biology
Describe the structure of a typical eukaryotic gene, including only the cis-acting factors that are involved in transcription, pre-mRNA processing, and translation. Discuss which cis-acting factors are present in the gene (DNA), the pre-mRNA, and the mature mRNA
In the DNA sequence, cis-acting factors are regions of non-coding DNA that regulate the transcription of the closest genes, which means that they are present in the same DNA molecule like the regulatory gene. On the other hand, the trans-acting factors can regulate other genes that are further away.
The typical structure of the cis eukaryotic gene are:
Regulator: nucleotide sequence that determines when the gene has to start transcription. The regulators can be amplifiers or inhibitors and each gene can include several of each type.
Promoter: portion of the sequence that indicates from which nucleotide the gene should begin to be transcribed. The promoter of the genes that encode mRNA usually has two well-known elements, the TATA and CAAT boxes, which are located near the coding segment.
Coding region: it corresponds to the informative portion of the gene to encode a given protein. In this region, two types of nucleotide sequences are interspersed: exons (regions that encode amino acids) and introns (regions that do not encode amino acids).
As can be seen in the previous figure, the gene contains: the regulator, the promoter, and the coding region with introns and exons. The pre-mRNA is composed of introns and exons. Finally, only the exons are present in the mature mRNA, since the introns are eliminated during the processing of the pre-mRNA.