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13.E: Cancer Genetics (Exercises)

  • Page ID
    4174
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    These are homework exercises to accompany Nickle and Barrette-Ng's "Online Open Genetics" TextMap. Genetics is the scientific study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics. It includes the study of genes, themselves, how they function, interact, and produce the visible and measurable characteristics we see in individuals and populations of species as they change from one generation to the next, over time, and in different environments.

    Study Questions:

    13.1 Why do oncogenes tend to be dominant, but mutations in tumor suppressors tend to be recessive?

    13.2 What tumor suppressing functions are controlled by p53? How can a single gene affect so many different biological pathways?

    13.3 Are all carcinogens mutagens? Are all mutagens carcinogens? Explain why or why not.

    13.4 Imagine that a laboratory reports that feeding a chocolate to laboratory rats increases the incidence of cancer. What other details would you want to know before you stopped eating chocolate?

    13.5 Do all women with HPV get cancer? Why or why not? Do all women with mutations in BRCA1 get cancer? Why or why not?


    This page titled 13.E: Cancer Genetics (Exercises) is shared under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Todd Nickle and Isabelle Barrette-Ng via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.