Question

Taxol is an anticancer drug extracted from the pacific yew tree that binds to microtubules and prevents their depolymerization. Actively dividing cells treated with taxol become blocked in which phase of mitosis?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Taxol is a type of chemotherapeutic drug that is anti-mitotic against cancerous cells which are actively dividing. At high concentration, it causes mitotic arrest at G2/M phase whereas at low concentration, apoptosis is induced at G0 and G1/S phase through activation of p53 depending on the dose concentration. It blocks the cell cycle by stabilizing the microtubule cytoskeleton against depolymerization. P53 is a type of tumor suppressor gene that is activated to inhibit the excessive proliferation of cancer cells.

Tumour suppressor genes code for proteins that slow down cell growth. They can halt the cell growth and division by linking the cell cycle to DNA damage or repression of genes essential to cell cycle.