Question

Cancer can result from disruptions in cell cycle control. Mutations that increase the production of EGFR have been associated with skin cancer of the head and neck. Describe how a mutation outside of the coding region of a gene that encodes EGFR could lead to overproduction of EGFR protein in a skin cell.

Answer 1

Mutation outside the coding region:

The mutation process would increase transcription rate of EFGR gene which leads to overproduction of EFGR and a skin cell. The production of mRNA increases due to mutation and transcription factor intur leads to the production of polypeptide. Gene duplication also increases.

EGFR is the acronym of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor, which is the gene present in $7^{th}$ chromosome of human. It is the gene that helps production of a specific type of receptors, whose decrease can cause disease like Alzheimer’s disease, whereas the increase leads to several forms of cancer. The overproduction of EGFR is mainly related with the mutation in the operon of the EGFR, especially the promoter or the operator gene, anyone of which will lead to the unchecked production of EGFR. Overproduction of EGFR mainly causes lung cancers and skin cancers.