TransWikia.com

What does z in lac z, y in lac y and a in lac a gene stand for?

Biology Asked by Dakshita Dwivedi on June 6, 2021

In lac operon the 3 structural genes lacz, lacy and laca must have some reason behind their names. While lac refers to lactose but what does z, y and a refer to?

One Answer

The Jacob and Monod article on regulation is paywalled, but there do seem to be some PDFs floating around.

In this article, the terminology of z and y is introduced as designators for mutants (z+ and z-, y+ and y-).

  • The z appears to be linked to a term from a kinetic equation.
  • The y is not justified, implying that it is an arbitrarily chosen variable, and such choices are often by convention adjacent to the justified variable (e.g., the index variable i is often followed by additional indices j and then k).

The a component is not present in the original article, but its name seems likely to come as an abbreviation of its function as an acetyltransferase

Answered by jakebeal on June 6, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP