Sorry this is the only bit I could find about Operons in my notes, does anyone have a summarised form that would be suitable for deffinitions in the exam?
An operon is a functioning unit of key nucleotide sequences of DNA including an operator, a common promoter, and one or more structural genes, which is controlled as a unit to produce messenger RNA (mRNA), in the process of transcription by an RNA polymerase.
Bacterial genes are organized into operons, or clusters of coregulated genes. In addition to being physically close in the genome, these genes are regulated such that they are all turned on or off together. Grouping related genes under a common control mechanism allows bacteria to rapidly adapt to changes in the environment.
The best-studied examples of operons are from the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), and they involve the enzymes of lactose metabolism and tryptophan biosynthesis. Because the lactose (lac) operon shares many features with other operons, its organization and regulation are described in detail below.