Question

An animal virus can enter animal cells and hijack the gene expression system to encode for its own proteins. What sequence do we expect to find in the promoter region of viral genes? A. -35 region B. -10 region C. TATA box D. None of the above

Answer 1

Ans. Given, it is an animal virus. The animal cell is an eukaryotic cells.

So, if a virus want to hijack animal cell machinery for transcription by using eukaryotic RNA polymerase, the viral gene must have promotor sites similar to that of the eukaryotic gene.

Because eukaryotic RNA polymerase bind to eukaryotic promotors only, the viral gene must share similarity in promotor sites with eukaryotic genes. Note than eukaryotic RNA polymerase can’t bind efficiently with a prokaryotic gene and vice-verse because of different in the promoter sequences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic gene.

The promotors listed here, -35 region and -10 region (TATA box) are those of a prokaryotic gene.

So, none of these promotors need to be present in the viral gene because the virus has to encode proteins in an eukaryotic cell, NOT in prokaryotic cell.

Correct option: D. None of the above