Sadly Wolverine appears to have finally succumbed to some ki

Sadly, Wolverine appears to have finally succumbed to some kind of disease that is impairing his continual cell proliferation. You suspect he has suffered a spontaneous somatic mutation that affects importation of a cell cycle activator.

1) You decide to investigate this proposed mutation to determine where in the importation cycle the problem is occurring. Propose at least 2 hypotheses of where the problem might lie.

2) What experimental procedures might you carry out to test your hypotheses?

Solution

1.2 hypotheses of where the problem might lie include:

Inactivation of proteins called cyclins

Inactivation of proteins called cyclin-dependent kinases

As both these enzymes are involved in the progression of cells from the gap phase to the synthetic and mitotic phases i.e. progression through G1, S, and G2/M.

2. The experimental procedures to test this is to use drugs that block these two proteins i.e. cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases, compare them with the cell line of Sadly, Wolverine along with a healthy cell line as control