Professor Marcus is studying gene expression in the liver cells of a mouse. She observes that when a steroid hormone enters the liver cells, the cells begin producing a wide variety of new proteins.

Steroid hormones have gene regulatory functions

Explanation:

Steroid hormones which include, among others, progestogen, estrogen, glucocorticoid and androgen, are known to regulate gene expression patterns by modulating the translation of the messenger RNA (mRNA) into proteins. In mammals, it has been shown that sex steroid hormones act in the liver to modulate the expression of key genes such as, for example, the prolactin gene required for milk production.