Question

What is reporter gene? Give an example?

Answer 1

Hint: Reporter genes are the important component of the operon system.Operon is the system in which a number of genes function together to bring about the protein expression. These genes are used to detect and measure gene expression achieved by a gene delivery system.

Complete answer:
Reporter gene is a gene that researchers attain to a regulatory sequence of another gene of interest in bacteria and other organisms. They are called reporters because the characteristics they confer on organisms expressing them are identified easily and then can be marked up. This is because they are selectable markers.

To introduce these genes into the organism, scientists place the receptor gene and the gene of interest in the same DNA so that it is inserted in the cell of the organism. For bacteria, it is usually in the form of a circular DNA molecule called plasmid. Commonly used reporter genes involve fluorescent and luminescent proteins.

Reporter genes are often used as an indicator of whether a certain gene has been taken up or expressed in the organism in which it is present. Examples include gene that encodes jellyfish green fluorescent protein that causes cells to glow to green under blue light, the enzyme luciferase which catalyse a reaction with luciferain to produce light.

EXAMPLE- Yeast reporter gene include CUP 1, a gene that enables yeast to grown on copper containing media, URA3 , a gene that enables killing of the yeast when growing on 5 - fluorouracil, and ADE 1 and ADE, genes that helps in synthesis of adenine.

Note: Reporter genes are used in the promoter studies where we clone the promoter ahead of a protein that can easily be demonstrated with slight or no injurious influence on the cell in which it is constructed. Amount of protein activations shows how active the promoter can be. This helps in examining in which tissues expressions occur or not.