IPTG is a nonmetabolizable lactose analogue used as an inducer of the lac operon. Binding changes LacI's affinity for the lac operator; it supplies a way to change repressor availability without assuming that cytoplasmic transport is instantaneous.
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Isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (commonly abbreviated as IPTG) is a chemical compound that is widely used in molecular biology, particularly in the study of gene expression and protein production. It serves primarily as an inducer for the expression of genes controlled by the lac operon in bacterial systems, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli).