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Tumor suppressor geneA tumor suppressor gene is a gene that reduces the probability that a cell in a multicellular organism will turn into a tumor cell. A mutation or deletion of such a gene will increase the probability of the formation of a tumor. Additional recommended knowledge
Two-hit hypothesisUnlike oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes generally follow the 'two-hit hypothesis,' which implies that both alleles that code for a particular gene must be affected before an effect is manifested. This is due to the fact that if only one allele for the gene is damaged, the second can still produce the correct protein. In other words, tumor suppressors are usually not haploinsufficient, although there are notable exceptions (the p53 gene product). FunctionsTumor suppressor genes, or more precisely, the proteins for which they code, either have a dampening or repressive effect on the regulation of the cell cycle or promote apoptosis, and sometimes do both. The functions of tumor suppressor proteins fall into several categories including the following:[1]
ExamplesThe first tumor suppressor protein discovered was the pRb protein in human retinoblastoma; however, recent evidence has also implicated pRb as a tumor survival factor. Another important tumor suppressor is the p53 tumor suppressor protein produced by the TP53 gene. PTEN acts by opposing the action of PI3K, which is essential for anti-apoptotic, pro-tumorogenic Akt activation. See also
References
Categories: Oncology | Tumor suppressor genes |
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tumor_suppressor_gene". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |