Question

The action of a new drug is unknown, so you test various aspects of eukaryotic cell processes looking for an effect. You notice that the survival of cells exposed to this drug is very low. Further analysis shows that some proteins and mRNAs are much longer than they should be. One hypothesis is that the drug interferes with which of the following?

1) transcription termination signals
2) spliceosome activity
3) ribosomes
4) nucleoli
5) either transcription termination signals or spliceosome activity

Answer 1

The drug likely interferes with transcription termination signals or spliceosome activity, resulting in abnormally long proteins and mRNAs and reduced cell survival. so, option 1 is the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

The hypothesis regarding the action of the new drug is that it interferes with either transcription termination signals or spliceosome activity. Given the observation of proteins and mRNAs being much longer than normal, it is plausible that the drug is preventing the normal removal of introns or the proper termination of transcription. This malfunction could lead to excessively long transcripts, which in turn would result in the translation of inappropriately long proteins, affecting cell survival.

The drug is most likely interfering with spliceosome activity, which is responsible for removing introns and connecting exons in pre-mRNA molecules.

The drug is most likely interfering with spliceosome activity. The spliceosome is responsible for removing introns and connecting exons in the pre-mRNA molecule, generating a mature mRNA ready for translation. If the drug inhibits the spliceosome, it can lead to the production of longer proteins and mRNAs than expected. This interference may be causing the low cell survival observed.