Question

If you make a chimeric factor with the DNA binding element of an activator and a functional domain of a repressor, how will this factor behave?

(a) It will act like a repressor

(b) It will act like an activator

(c) It will not be able to bind the DNA so although it binds via the repressing domain it won’t cause repression

(d) Repression domain will be non-functional

This question was posed to me in an online quiz.

This interesting question is from Transcription in Eukaryotes : Activators and Repressors in portion Gene Expression : Transcription Prokaryotes of Cytogenetics

Answer 1

Correct answer is (a) It will act like a repressor

For explanation: As activators and repressors have a domain organization it is seen that if a DNA binding domain is provided it doesn’t affect the activity. As long as the factor binds to the correct cis element it will still be a functional repressor.