Cis-acting element
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Regulation of gene expression must be gene specific. Regulatory systems therefore require targeting sequences physically linked to the target gene as an address to tell the trans-acting factors that the gene to which they are linked should be regulated. These sequences, which can be in the DNA, the RNA or the protein, are called cis-acting elements (or cis-regulatory elements) if their action depends on their being physically linked to the regulatory target.
All enhancers and promoters are cis-acting elements, as well as operators and promoters in bacteria.
