1. Operon refers to a cluster of structural genes regulated by a common operator and involved in the same metabolic pathway. Examples include the lac and tryptophan operons.
2. Signal transduction is the process by which extracellular signals are converted into intracellular responses, involving the steps of reception, transduction, and response.
3. Cloning involves making identical copies of a gene, which can be the original or a mutated version, using DNA ligase and restriction endonucleases.