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. 1969 Feb;97(2):769–775. doi: 10.1128/jb.97.2.769-775.1969

Relationships Between the Regulation of the Lactose and Galactose Operons of Escherichia coli

Beverly Williams 1, Kenneth Paigen 1
PMCID: PMC249758  PMID: 4886293

Abstract

A group of structurally related compounds, including galactose, fucose, and a number of galactosides, are regulatory effectors for both the lac and gal operons of Escherichia coli. Although a common set of effectors exists, each operon appears to be regulated independently of the other. Experiments with various regulatory mutants have shown, first, that the presence of the proteins of one operon is without effect on the regulation of the other and, second, that the influence an effector has on one operon is independent of the presence or the functional state of the regulatory genes of the other operon. It is unlikely, therefore, that the two operons share a common regulatory macromolecule. Both gal R− and gal oc regulatory mutants are equally resistant to repression by glucose and galactosides. It has been possible to show, in the gal operon, that induction and repression are competitive processes. For this operon, the differential rate of enzyme synthesis is set by the relative intracellular concentrations of inducer (fucose) and repressor (isopropylthiogalactoside).

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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