Question

Which of the following is a benefit of organizing a set of genes in an operon as opposed to multiple individually regulated genes?

Group of answer choices

None of the above are benefits of an operon.

Replication only needs to be initiated once.

Genes can't be knocked out when in an operon

Expression of an operon is constitutive.

A mutation can be masked by other related genes compensating for the loss of that gene.

Answer 1

In operons, multiple genes, which are involved in ona single pathway, are in one set. This makes it possible to control the transcription of all the genes together. This is an energy efficient mode as only one regulatory element/protein is required to turn off the transcription in opposed to multiple repressor if genes were not clustered together.

Replication is always initiated as one since whole genome is replicated at once before cell division. And operons are concerned with transcription control not with the replication.

Genes can be knocked out, irrespective of them being in an operon or not.

Expression of operon isn't constitutive as it is highly regulated. Actually that is the purpose of operon,to regulate multiple genes at once.

Mutation in one gene of an operon can not be masked by other genes of that operon as they all code for different proteins. In fact mutation in one gene may make the whole operon redundant.

So none of the options are right. Thus the right option is :- None of the above are benefits of an operon.