You are a scientist studying drug resistance in cancer. You are particularly interested in ABCB1, a member of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family of cell membrane transporters. Upregulation of these transmembrane proteins in cancer cells allows them to actively expel therapeutic agents, which is a primary mechanism of chemotherapeutic drug resistance.
Gene Interactions
When the expression of a single trait is influenced by two or more different non-allelic genes, it is termed as genetic interaction. According to Mendel's law of inheritance, each gene functions in its own way and does not depend on the function of another gene, i.e., a single gene controls each of seven characteristics considered, but the complex contribution of many different genes determine many traits of an organism.
Gene Expression
Gene expression is a process by which the instructions present in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are converted into useful molecules such as proteins, and functional messenger ribonucleic (mRNA) molecules in the case of non-protein-coding genes.
You are a scientist studying drug resistance in cancer. You are particularly interested in ABCB1,
a member of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family of cell membrane transporters.
Upregulation of these transmembrane proteins in cancer cells allows them to actively expel
therapeutic agents, which is a primary mechanism of chemotherapeutic drug resistance.
1. You are investigating a new drug, JB-80, that reduces ABCB1 mRNA levels in cancer cells.
You want to determine if JB-80 is acting by reducing transcription of the ABCB1 gene, or
by altering the stability of the resultant ABCB1 mRNA transcript.
a) What compound could you use to test this question?
b) What treatment groups would you include in your experiment ?
c) If JB-80 works by enhancing degradation of the mRNA transcript, what would you
expect the relative abundance of ABCB1 mRNA to be in each treatment group of the
experiment from Question 1b? Please explain your answer
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