Answer to Question #284939 in Biology for straus

Question

How do transcription factors work? What is their relationship to control regions in DNA?

Answer 1

Transcription factors are proteins possessing domains that bind to the DNA of promoter or enhancer regions of specific genes. They also possess a domain that interacts with RNA polymerase II or other transcription factors and consequently regulates the amount of messenger RNA (mRNA) produced by the gene.

They may bind directly to special “promoter” regions of DNA, which lie upstream of the coding region in a gene, or directly to the RNA polymerase molecule. Transcription factors can activate or repress the transcription of a gene, which is generally a key determinant in whether the gene functions at a given time.