1. A researcher is trying to determine how his compound derived from eucalyptus
ID: 36531 • Letter: 1
Question
1. A researcher is trying to determine how his compound derived from eucalyptus affects gene expression in breast cancer cells. He performs a microarray to compare the expression of 25 genes in non-treated breast cancer cells (control) and treated breast cancer cells (experimental). Wells with red indicate increased binding of mRNA, yellow indicate equal mRNA binding, and green indicate decreased mRNA binding when compared to the control cells. a) Which genes are overexpressed in response to this treatment? (1 mark) b) If genes 17, 23, and 24 were involved in repression of cell cycle regulation, should the researcher conclude that his compound could cure cancer? (2 marks)Explanation / Answer
Based on the given data,
He took 25 different genes and each well contains a gene, then he treated with eucalyptus and observed gene expression patterns.
Thus,
a)
The gens 1, 7, 15 and 19 are overexpressed in response to the treatment.
b)
If genes 17, 23, and 24 (all green patterns) were involved in the cell cycle repression, then they should express more number of mRNA in response to eucalyptus compound, and then they could repress the cell cycle. Hence, the cell division would be stopped, it results the halting of over division of cancer cells.
But, here 17, 23, and 24 had shown decreased expression, thus the mRNA levels are low. Hence, this compound cannot cure cancer.
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