Thursday, April 11, 2019

Jumping Genes Affect Tumor Development



For the most part, scientists usually search for cancer genes in cancer research. This do this by scouring the genome for altered sequences or mutations that the DNA might comprise of. A recent and new experiment that was performed at the Washington University School of Medicine, has now publicized that jumping genes are also significant and greatly affect tumor growth. They did this by observing a number of 7,769 tumor samples from 15 distinct cancers. As a result, they revealed 129 genes that may drive tumor through their influence on different cancer genes. The tumor samples came from different types of cancer such as, breast, lung, colon, skin, and brain cancer. The jumping genes come in diverse shapes and forms and they are classified as sequences of DNA that can interchange around in a genome. It was investigated that these specific types of genes are the cause of many cancers that consist of an accelerated growth rate of a tumor. In the more destructive and advance cancer cases, the jumping genes turn on and keep on, the genes that have to do with cancer and that were silent. Personally, I found it interesting that how the jumping genes made it into the human genome throughout evolution is currently still a question for scientists and researchers.





No comments:

Post a Comment