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Every cell in your body has a full set of genes, or ‘recipes,’ to build many different kinds of proteins (including enzymes). Building proteins uses energy and resources. Cells don’t need to build every kind of protein all the time. To conserve energy and resources, the cell’s genes are normally ‘turned off.’ When environmental conditions change, the genes to build the specific proteins the cell needs to respond to those changes are ‘turned on'.
What causes a gene to go from its normal ‘turned off’ state (when it IS NOT building proteins) to its ‘turned on’ state (when it IS building proteins)? To answer this question, we will zoom in and take a closer look at a gene and its environment to see how and why a specific protein is made.
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