Describe the outcome of a mutation in the operator region of the lac operon.
Operator is the region on lac operon which binds to a protein called as lac repressor. The binding of repressor to operon prevents RNA polymerase from transcribing the operon. This repression is possible only when there is glucose in the medium and lactose is absent. But whenever lactose is present in the medium, it acts as an inducer molecule and degrades repressor. This makes operator free and therefore RNA polymerase can now transcribe the operon.
If operator is mutated, then repressor will not be able to bind to operator and therefore the operon will be express itself all the times irrespective of the presence or absence of lactose in the medium. This type of mutation is called as operator constitutive, which means, constitutive expression of operator.
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