Learning Goals/Objectives for Chapter 5D:  After class and this reading, students will be able to

• describe general mechanisms of how a gene for a given protein might be negatively and positively regulated at the level of gene transcription;
• describe the structure/function/role of promoters, response elements, RNA polymerase, transcription factors, nucleosomes, histone proteins, epigenetic modifications of DNA in gene transcription;
• explain the differences (structural, Kds) between specific and nonspecific binding of a ligand to a macromolecule, at the structural level;
• describe the structural features of both proteins and DNA that result in specific and nonspecific binding;
• describe and give examples of how post-translational modifications of proteins and epigenetic modifications of DNA can alter gene expression;
• explain how the apparent Kd for a protein binding to DNA can be altered by the presence of another protein bound to DNA at a proximal site
• describe the basis of RNA interference in gene expression