You are studying a mammalian gene that has a mutation resulting in a premature s

Question

You are studying a mammalian gene that has a mutation resulting in a premature stop codon that occurs in exon 1. The gene codes for four exons. When expressed, this PMC is expected to result in a truncated protein. You perform a western blot to look for the expressed portion of the truncated protein. To your surprise, you cannot detect this truncated protein in cells. You next take cDNA from wild-type cells and use it to clone the gene into a mammalian expression vector. Using site directed mutagenesis, you introduce the premature stop codon in the same position as your mutant gene. Now you transfect your mutated plasmid into the mutant cells and perform a western blot. This time, you can easily detect the truncated protein. Assuming that the gene is expressed from the plasmid at similar levels as the gene is expressed from its natural promoter on the chromosome, explain why you could not detect this truncated protein before, but can now detect it when it is expressed from the plasmid.

Explanation / Answer

The reasons for the truncated protein not getting detected might be-

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