Question

A bacterial cell is in an environment that contains both lactose and glucose, this cell has a mutation in adenyl cyclase which results in its continuous activation. Identify the expression level of its lac operon and briefly explain your answer

Answer 1

Normally, when both glucose and lactose are present in the medium, then the bacterial cell will use glucose in order to conserve energy which will be utilised in the switching on of the lactose operon. In this condition, the levels of cAMP are low in the cell.

But in the question it is given that adenyl cyclase enzyme is mutated and is continuously activated inside the bacterial cell. This enzyme is responsible for the formation of cyclic AMP which forms complexes with CAP when the concentration of glucose is low in the medium and lactose is high. Therefore this will lead to the formation of cAMP CAP complexes in the bacterial cell both lactose and glucose are present and therefore the operon will be transcribed in a constitutive manner.

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