I’m trying to understand what bicistronic means. It started here… or actually, here.
Look at this definition:
Having or involving two cistrons, loci responsible for generating a protein
Your Dictionary
So you’d think this means that genetic stuff from one cistron plus genetic stuff from another cistron throw out a combined recipe for making one protein, right?
Wrong, according to this:
Capable of making two proteins from a single messenger RNA molecule.
Medical Dictionary at The Free Dictionary
Instead of “It takes two to make one“, this is saying, “It takes one to make two.”
But wait. One what? Two cistrons deliver one mRNA molecule which then provides instructions for two proteins. Did I get it now? Is that what bicistronic means?