Cancer and Development Questions for Tuesday and Wednesday, November 12 and 13, 2013Cancer:1. Compare tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes and their mechanisms of causing cancer.Give an example of one of these genes and explain how it can cause cancer when it is not functioning properly.2. Why is the p53 gene considered the “guardian of the genome”?3. List and briefly describe the two properties that all cancer cells share. 4. Choose a proto-oncogene and describe specifically how it can cause cancer when it is notfunctioning properly. Make sure to mention in your answer whether this is a gain-of-function or loss-of-function situation and whether it is caused by a dominant or recessive cancer phenotype.5. How do Bax and Bcl2 work to control apoptosis?6. Normal cell proliferation has several controls including cell cycle checkpoints, hormonal regulation, and apoptosis. We discussed several genes and their protein products that are involved in each of these control aspects and how mutation could affect their function in such a way as to cause cancer. Choose one of these cell proliferation controls and provide the following information:a) Give an example of how a normal gene or its protein would function in controlling cell proliferation.b) Give an example of how a mutation to this gene (and resulting product) could cause abnormal cell proliferation.c) Is this an example of an oncogene or a tumor-suppressor gene? 7. Knudson suggested that it takes “two hits” in tumor suppressor genes to cause cancer. What does this mean? Give an example of how this might work in a tumor suppressor gene.Development:8. The process of development is a cascade of interactions beginning with maternal-effect genes and progressing through a series of zygotic genes. Give an example of how zygotic genes are influenced by maternal effect genes.9. If bicoid mRNA were distributed evenly throughout the developing egg, what do you think would happen? How will this affect further development of the embryo?10. Design an experiment to test the effects of a gap segmentation gene on development of Drosophila. What results would you expect from such an experiment?11. Contrast differentiation and determination in development.12. The relationship between the maternal effect gene bicoid and the zygotic gene hunchbackis best described by which of the following statements?a) The bicoid protein is a transcription factor that binds in the upstream promoter region of hunchback and activates the gene expression of hunchback. b) When the hunchback protein is in high concentration it binds to low affinity sites upstream of the bicoid gene and acts as a silencer to repress activation of bicoid.c) When the hunchback protein is in medium concentration it binds to the high affinity sites upstream of the bicoid gene and activates the expression of bicoid.d) There is no relationship between these two genes.13. In Drosophila, segmentation genes function in a sequential manner in the following order:a) Gap, segment-polarity, pair-rule, maternal effectb) Maternal effect, pair-rule, homeotic, gapc) Maternal effect, gap, pair-rule, homeoticd) Homeotic, maternal effect, gap, segment-polarity14. Choose ONLY descriptions below that correctly describe the relationship and origins of the bicoid, hunchback and nanos proteins (you may choose more than one description if it is correct). The graph may help!a) Bicoid is a maternal effect gene product that interacts with promoter regions of the hunchback gene resulting in transcription of the hunchback protein.b) High concentrations of the hunchback protein results in the increased transcriptionof the bicoid gene.c) Hunchback is a gap gene that exerts transcriptional control over the bicoid gene but translational control over the nanos gene.d) When the hunchback protein is in high concentrations in the embryo, nanos is silenced.e) Nanos exerts translational control over hunchback by deadenylating the hunchback mRNA.f) Hunchback is a morphogen that is controlled by maternal effects.g) Bicoid is distributed in the egg prior to fertilization. Its concentration determines the early differentiation of head and tail regions.Bicoid ProtNanos ProtHunchback ProteinAnterior PosteriorEmbryo protein distribution15. What are Hox genes? Briefly describe how maternal effects genes can ultimately influence Hox gene expression.16. What do Hox genes do? Give an example of one Hox gene in Drosophila 17. Imagine a situation where a homeotic (Hox) gene is incorrectly expressed in any organism we discussed. What is the consequence of this kind of expression pattern?18. Give a very brief explanation of how the following terms relate to the Eyeless gene in Drosophila.Master regulatory gene:Pax6:Eyeless network:19. Briefly describe each of the Drosophila Hox gene properties listed below.colinearity