Rb is a tumor suppressor gene; its normal function is to help restrain cell division. Loss of both copies of Rb is a causative factor in some kinds of cancer
You propose to treat these cancers by injecting the patients with a viral vector that carries a copy of the Rb gene and has the ability to infect all the cells of the body, thereby artificially driving expression of Rb in all the cells, including the cancer cells. Your colleague says "No!You'll simply kill the patient, because you will halt cell division throughout the body."
A. Why would halting cell division throughout the body kill a full-grownadult person?
B. Is your colleague right in thinking that forced expression of Rb in everycell will halt all cell division?
A. Many vital tissues in the adult body, including the lining of the gut, the epidermis, and the system of blood cells, require continual renewal, which is dependent on stem cells and cell division. Cessation of cell division will lead to a disappearance of these tissues, with fatal consequences.
B. No, your colleague is not right to assume this. As explained in Chapter 18 (Figure 18–14), cells that express the Rb gene can proliferate: whether or not they do so depends on whether the Rb protein is phosphorylated (allowing cell division) or unphosphorylated (blocking cell division).
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Meselson and Stahl distinguished between parental and newly-synthesized DNA by using
A) heavy metal. B) heavy and light forms of nitrogen. C) nucleic acid dyes. D) chromosome paints.
Symptoms of disease differ from signs of disease in that symptoms
A) are changes felt by the patient. B) are changes observed by the physician. C) are specific for a particular disease. D) always occur as part of a syndrome. E) None of the answers is correct.
Public health scientists discover and become concerned about a new strain of RNA virus among farm animals, especially geese and pigs, in the Midwest. Each virion is composed of lipid, helical proteins, and multiple pieces of RNA. This new virus may be a(n)
A. rotavirus. B. influenza virus. C. hantavirus. D. dengue virus. E. coronavirus.
For a person who has any type of chromosomal abnormality, what factor(s) has/have the greatest impact on both physical and cognitive potential?
A. Prenatal testing and diagnosis B. The number of affected family members C. Personal family environment and social interaction D. The number of chromosomes involved with the abnormality