In: Biology
1.Explain the difference between an oncogene and a tumor suppressor gene.
2.Signal transduction cascades amplify hormonal signals. How does cAMP contribute to signal amplification?
Ans) The role of oncogene is to turn the cell cycle ON continuously wheras the tumor suppressor gene like Rb,p53 etc turn the cell cycle OFF and promotes apoptosis (For example,in the case of DNA damage,the kinases phosphorylate p53 and this results in decreased binding affinity with Mdm2 (E3 ubuquitin ligase) as a result of which the Mdm2 now cannot degrade p53 which results in p53 accumulation and this leads to the increased synthesis of p21 protein (CKI or CDK inhibitory protein) whkch arrests the cell cycle at G1 phase).
Ans 2) cAMP is a secondary signalling messenger produced when the G-alpha-GTP activates the effector adenylyl cyclase.cAMP levels when rises,they activate the protein kinase A ( PKA) which inturn further activates the cREB ( cAMP response element binding protein) when enters nucleus to turn ON the transcription.If the cAMP phosphodiesterases convert cAMP to AMP then the pathway will be blocked and thus transcription will be repressed.