In: Biology
How could operon fusions and gene fusions be used to determine the level of transcription and translation of a particular gene?
Answer-
Biologists creates fusion genes for research purposes. The fusion of reporter genes to the regulatory elements of genes of interest allows researches to study gene expression.
Reporter gene fusion tells about level of transcription and translation of a particular gene in following manner-
Reporter gene fusions can be used to measure activity levels of gene regulators, identify the regulatory sites of genes (including the signals required), identify various genes that are regulated in response to the same stimulus. If we know about proper regulation of any gene then we can easily find out level of expression of that gene.
Alternatively we can study natural gene fusion in Genome to find out proper regulatory mechanism and by knowing that we tell about level of expression.
The same thing are applied in case of operons, in that case also gene fusion experiments (or by studying natural gene fusion in operons or by studying operon fusion) we can find out their proper regulatory mechanism, which will tell about their level of expression.