How does hormones activate genes?

Question

anonymous · Answer

hormones are sent from the brain in to the blood stream and travel to each indivudual cell and tell it what to do and to do thier job in the body. It also creates the Chemical reaction for the Reproductive area/ cells exactly the same as the others.
hope this helps

anonymous · Answer

so what does it activate?

anonymous · Answer

it activates the cells ability to grow and function in the body like it is supose to do, if they wernt sent out well lets just say you wont grow and the cells would basicly not reproduce like they supose to, so no Puberty

anonymous · Answer

A cell only expresses out certain type of genes? I thought there are many genes in a cell, so if the cell doesnt grow, many genes wont be express?

anonymous · Answer

no , it expresses out may, if it does not grow it will only express about 50% the other half will just stay in the cell to try and help it support its self
sorry im taking a while to get a stright answer aha.

anonymous · Answer

thanks for ur help

anonymous · Answer

you are welcome!

blues · Answer

Just to clarify:

As @PatrickJordan correctly states, hormones are small signalling molecules involved in intercellular communication. They are produced by one type of cell in one part of the body, travel to a different cell in a different part of the body and change the gene expression profile of that target cell.

The question asks how.

Hormones are distinct from other signalling molecules in that they are lipid soluble molecules. Usually they are derived from fats and retain that structural similarity. That means they can diffuse through the cell membrane and, once inside the cell, the nuclear membrane. Other signalling molecules have to act through receptors which they bind on the cell surface and which trigger signalling pathways through a series of other proteins inside the cell. Not so hormones.

Once inside the cytoplasm or the nucleus, they bind a target protein called a transcription factor. This changes the transcription factor's structure so that it can interact directly with a gene or gene controlling sequence in the DNA. Once it does that, it either up-regulates or down-regulates the target gene, depending on what it's specific role is.

But the key point in "How do hormones activate genes" is that they do so by directly entering cells and acting directly on DNA binding proteins, unlike all other kinds of signalling molecules.