Role in lac operon modeling
Mathematical models of lac operon regulation often take allolactose as the central inducer variable that couples lactose metabolism to gene expression. In many data sets, sets of differential equations follow the time course of lactose permease, internal lactose, β-galactosidase, allolactose, and lac mRNA. In such models, allolactose is produced from imported lactose by β-galactosidase and removed by hydrolysis, binding to the lac repressor, and dilution by cell growth. Analyses of such models demonstrate that the feedback that involves allolactose can yield either a graded increase in lac expression with inducer concentration or, under some conditions, two stable expression states in which cells are effectively uninduced or fully induced, in agreement with experimental observations of lac operon behavior. The model used assumed that large number of cells were being used. The same ideas/models can't be simply applied to a small number of molecules and cells as the situation is different. ==See also==