What is the term for a set of genes that transcribe and code for enzymes that break down an antibiotic?

The term for a set of genes that transcribe and code for enzymes that break down an antibiotic is "operon." An operon is a cluster of genes that are regulated together and often share a common promoter, allowing for coordinated expression in response to environmental changes. In the context of antibiotic resistance, an operon can include multiple genes that encode enzymes specifically designed to degrade or modify the antibiotic compound, thus providing bacteria with the ability to survive in the presence of antibiotics.

This coordinated action is especially important in microbial genetics, where bacteria can quickly evolve mechanisms to resist drugs, and operons facilitate the rapid expression of these resistance genes when antibiotics are encountered. Other answer choices do not relate to this multi-gene regulatory mechanism: exons relate to coding sequences within genes, introns are non-coding segments within genes, and codons refer to three-nucleotide sequences that determine specific amino acids in protein synthesis.