Gene Regulation and Protein Synthesis
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'.