text: The L-arabinose operon houses genes coding for arabinose-digesting enzymes.  These function to break down arabinose as an alternative source for energy when glucose is low or absent. The operon consists of a regulatory repressor gene (araC), three control sites (ara02, ara01, araI1, and araI2), two promoters (Parac/ParaBAD) and three structural genes (araBAD). Once produced, araC acts as repressor by binding to the araI region to form a loop which prevents polymerases from binding to the promotor and transcribing the structural genes into proteins.
  In the absence of Arabinose and araC (repressor), loop formation is not initiated and structural gene expression will be lower. In the absence of Arabinose but presence of araC, araC regions form dimers, and bind to bring ara02 and araI1 domains closer by loop formation. In the presence of both Arabinose and araC, araC binds with the arabinose and acts as an activator. This conformational change in the araC  no longer can form a loop, and the linear gene segment promotes RNA polymerase recruitment to the structural araBAD region.