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Notice how the organism in the video pursues and devours food. Amazingly, this organism, Lacrymaria olor, is just a single cell! How is it possible that a single cell can behave so dynamically? The Lacrymaria's complex behavior is possible because this tiny organism produces many different proteins. These proteins perform tasks that collectively result in the activity you see. In addition, proteins are used by living organisms to grow, convert food to energy, and reproduce, among many other things. Proteins vary tremendously in their functions and perform almost all of the work done by living cells. This leads to the question: How do cells make proteins? Information for making proteins is encoded in each cell's DNA, in regions called genes. Cells use information in genes to build proteins and other molecules in a process called gene expression. Gene expression is one of life's most fundamental processes, and is performed by all living organisms, from bacteria to blue whales. This module explores how cells use the information in genes to make proteins.