Attenuation is another mechanism by which tryptophan synthesis is regulated when tryptophan is abundant in the environment. During attenuation, ribosomes quickly translate the 5' end of the mRNA transcript, causing the transcript to fold into a loop that forces RNA polymerase to detach from the DNA.
Which of the following best explains why attenuation is a mechanism that is unique to prokaryotes?
A.Prokaryotic genes do not contain introns.
B.®
Only prokaryotes can translate an mRNA while the mRNA is being transcribed.
C.Eukaryotes require more amino acids than prokaryotes do and therefore do not shut down production of tryptophan.
D.Eukaryotes do not have groups of genes that are regulated together.