Question

Written answer/problems. Type the full answer to each part of the question.

Define the terms "oncogene" and "tumor suppressor gene." In addition, give the general functions of the wild type alleles of each these genes and indicate whether the cancer-associated mutations of these genes are usually dominant or recessive. Also, give an example of each type of gene, and, for each example, describe why it is classified as this type of gene.

Answer 1

Oncogene refers to the gene which is mutated and has changed from its basic form of gene. It leads to growth of cancer cells and it is either inherited or by harmful carcinogenic substances in the nearby environment.

Wild type allele of oncogene is called as proto-oncogene and oncogene alleles are typically dominant

For example - Cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases replace catalytic lysine and causes negative dominance thereby suppress signaling from the wild type gene.

Tumor suppressor genes are the ones leads to a) slowed cell division process, b) mistakes in DNA repair and c) causes programmed death of cells.

The functional loss of even a single suppressor gene leads to recessive mutations that may occur in coming future generations for example function loss of suppressor gene in germline mutations