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What are tumor suppressor genes?

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Answer:

Tumor suppressor genes are normal genes that carry out several functions:

slow down cell division
repair mistakes made when DNA is being replicated
tell cells when to die (a process known as apoptosis or programmed cell death)

A mutation in a tumor suppressor gene allows cells to grow out of control, which can lead to cancer ie the growth of a tumor.

About 30 tumor suppressor genes have been identified, including p53, BRCA1, BRCA2, APC, and RB1.

A good analogy for tumor suppressor genes is the brake pedal on a car - it normally keeps the cell from dividing too quickly just as a brake keeps a car from going too fast. If the brakes on a car fail, the car goes out of control; similarly, when something goes wrong with the gene, such as a mutation, cell division can get out of control.

See:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_1_4x_oncogenes_and_tumor_suppressor_genes.asp

http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/FactSheet/Genetics/fs6.TSgenes.cfm

http://www.cancerquest.org/index.cfm?page=52

First answer by ID0000000000. Last edit by MikeHayes. Contributor trust: 182 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].

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