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How are genes regulated?
Your body needs to make some proteins throughout your life whereas others are only needed at certain times. So all genes are regulated, allowing a cell to make the right amount of protein, just at the time when it is needed. Many proteins in the growing embryo are only needed for a very short time. The proteins made by a particular cell depend on where it is in the embryo, how old the embryo is, and the instructions it receives from its own genes and from other cells.Enlarge
Proteins in the growing ridge (dark band) of a limb bud in a chick embryo.
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