Genes hold our entire genetic code, and are the key to understanding the biological process. However, the insight that genes can be switched on and off and the role that proteins play in this switching of genes is of very recent origin. Indeed, without proteins, the genes would remain totally inactive, and gene expression is the process by which proteins perform their role , returning on and off desirable and not so desirable functions in genes. Genes are turned off and on—gene switching as it is called—by the binding of proteins to regulatory sites on the DNA in the vicinity of the starting point or transcription.The proteins are known as transcription factors and the DNA binding sites are known as operators. Gene switch operations are leading to a better understanding of the process involved in gene activation and repression.

The Special Feature in the present issue of the WISTA: IPR Biotechnology deals with the mechanism of Gene Switching and recent patents issued in this vital area of biotechnology.