A cancer cell line was recently shown to carry a mutation is the protein p53. As

Question

A cancer cell line was recently shown to carry a mutation is the protein p53. As expected it was found that the mutated p53 is present at very high level in these cancerous cells. Interestingly, when the mutated p53 was isolated from the cells, it was shown to be able to interact with a purified Mdm2. Which of the following could you make on the effect of the mutation? Mutated p53 causes the protein to be very unstable Mutated p53 cannot activate transcription Mutated p53 protein does not fold into the correct conformation Mutated p53 cannot be phosphorylated in response to DNA damage.

Explanation / Answer

In condition when p53 is not phosphorylated then Mdm2 binds to it for ubiquitination and degradation upon DNA damage. However when p53 gets phosphorylated then mdm2 cannot bind to p53. Thus correct option is (d) : mutated p53 cannot be phosphorylated in response to DNA damage.

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