Biology

Konner Glass

7 November, 13:21

You are studying nuclear lamins and use recombinant DNA technology to alter the coding sequence of a nuclear lamin gene. The alteration you make creates a situation such that the gene now codes for a nuclear lamin protein that can no longer be phosphorylated when the nuclear envelope is broken down during mitosis. What do you predict would happen if the cell only had the altered nuclear lamin gene (and not the unaltered version) ?

(a) Mitosis should proceed as usual because the dephosphorylation of the lamin is what is important for nuclear lamina assembly during mitosis, so phosphorylation will not be necessary. (b) Disassembly of the nuclear lamins will occur prematurely because the lamins cannot be phosphorylated.

(c) Nuclear lamins will no longer disassemble properly during mitosis. (d) Nuclear lamins will be unable to produce dimers, as coiled-coil formation will be disrupted.