The experimental microorganism used by François Jacob and Jacques Monod was the common laboratory bacterium, E. coli, but many of the basic regulatory concepts that were discovered by Jacob and Monod are fundamental to cellular regulation in all organisms.
Os descubridores deste operón, François Jacob e Jacques Monod utilizaron nos seus experimentos a bacteria, E. coli, pero moitos dos conceptos básicos sobre regulación que descubriron son fundamentais para a regulación celular de todos os organismos.