Challenge Questions

Section 23.2

Question 23.34

Many cancer cells are immortal (will divide indefinitely) because they have mutations that allow telomerase to be expressed. How might this knowledge be used to design anticancer drugs?

Question 23.35

Bloom syndrome is an autosomal recessive disease that exhibits haploinsufficiency. A recent survey showed that people heterozygous for mutations at the BLM locus are at increased risk of colon cancer. Suppose you are a genetic counselor. A young woman is referred to you whose mother has Bloom syndrome; the young woman’s father has no family history of Bloom syndrome. The young woman asks whether she is likely to experience any other health problems associated with her family history of Bloom syndrome. What advice would you give her?

Question 23.36

Imagine that you discover a large family in which bladder cancer is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. Briefly outline a series of studies that you might conduct to identify the gene that causes bladder cancer in this family.

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