In referring to the war on cancer, J. Michael Bishop, a Nobel laureate for his w

Question

In referring to the war on cancer, J. Michael Bishop, a Nobel laureate for
his work with oncogenes quoted a line from the Pogo comic strip: “We have
met the enemy and he is us.” Why is this quotation appropriate?

Normal cells greatly slow their rates of cell division after filling a culture
dish with a layer one cell deep (a monolayer). If a circular group of cells is
removed from the middle of the filled culture dish, the cells on the edges of
the "wound" will begin to divide, fill the space and then stop dividing again.
How does the behavior of transformed cells differ?

You are studying a gene that is involved in the development of tumors.
The gene is represented once in the affected cells. The allele of the same
gene on the homologous chromosome is normal. When the gene is inserted
into normal cells, the cells are transformed. What type of gene is this?

Explanation / Answer

"We have met the enemy and he is us" This quotation is appropriate on the subject of cancer as we possess proto-oncogenes in our cells. When these cells are activated and converted to oncogenes we get cancer. Hence this quotation is appropriate. ---------------------------- The behavior of transformed cells differs from normal cells in cell layers. Normal cells do not grow on top of another cell but grow as a monolayer and stop growing once the surface is covered. Transformed cells do not follow the characteristics of normal cells. They grow on top of one another and do not stop growing. They form a foci of cells which are piles of cells growing on top of each other. ------------------------ This gene is a dominant one as a single copy is enough to transform a normal cell into a transformed or cancer cell.

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