Talk:Oncogene

microRNAs

I am interested in making some rather substantial changes to this page, but thought it might be best to float some ideas here first.

An example: the second (short) paragraph says:

"New research indicates that small RNAs 21-25 nucleotides in length called miRNAs can control expression of these genes by downregulating them."

This sentence is true, and there is a lot of interest to say about miRNAs and their involvement in cancer, but the above makes a generic statement about all genes that says nothing specific about oncogenes. On that basis, I would delete this paragraph.

Comments?

User:OncoAnalyst forgot to sign the above.

Delete or rewrite. I would start by rewriting the above as "microRNAs can control expression of these genes by downregulating them." and add relevant sources. Also please rewrite the section on the microRNA page about cancer. Una Smith 04:35, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

While I agree the connections between miRNAs and oncogenes are beginning to become intriguing, I really don't feel it belongs at the beginning of the article. I'm a big fan of the idea that these entries should be written in the "funnel" style, where we start with the most broad statements and then move on to specifics. In that light, miRNAs belong as a sub-heading later on in the article--placing them at the beginning is just confusing. It also doesn't necessarily contribute anything to the basic understanding of what an "oncogene" is.

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:30, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

Someone has added extra material:

   "so they pretty much suck"
   "loss of bladder control"
   "a condition called proto-syntheticcanceritis"

I don't want to remove it without discussion, hence this new section. -klode —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.92.192.254 (talk) 05:31, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Conflicting statements in intro

"Since the 1970s, dozens of oncogenes have been identified in cancer." and "Since the 1980s, dozens of oncogenes have been identified in human cancer." Cheers, Jack (talk) 14:29, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Diference between oncogene and protoncogene

I searched this article trying to understand the difference between an oncogene and a protooncogene. Their definition seem the same to me in this article, just with slightly different words. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.66.199.182 (talk) 23:44, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

historically, when the first oncogene was discovered, the discovered gene became tumour inducing from the insertion of viral DNA. Oncogene then meant the mutated version and proto-oncogene the non-mutated version. However, as it was found that upregulation led in some cases to oncogenic behaviour from completely un-mutated "proto"-oncogene, some authors do not make the distinction. I believe there is still debate about what is correct. My personal opinion which has no authority at all is that it makes no sense to have two names for the exact same strand of DNA.CyrilleDunant (talk) 08:15, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

->If this is the case that current research has shown that these two definitions are degenerate, then it would be appropriate to state this in the wiki. As of now, it is just a source of confusion. Just need to find some good sources...Bfwiki (talk) 15:16, 1 July 2010 (UTC)bfwiki

"two names for the exact same strand of DNA" <-- If it is not possible to identify a change in DNA that accounts for the transformation of a proto-oncogene into an oncogene then efforts would be made to identify some other change as the cause of the cancer. There would be no rush to abandon the terminology "oncogene" and "proto-oncogene". "these two definitions are degenerate" <-- In biology it is almost always possible to find border-line and special cases that are hard to fit into rigid definitions and categorizations. That does not mean that useful categories and terms are abandoned.

same here: I did not understand the difference between oncogene and proto-oncogene. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to negate the first sentence into "An oncogene is a gene that is responsible for the ABnormal growth and differentiation of cells." ? At least this seems to be the meaning of the term when reading other sources (e.g. the German wiki). There they state, that Onco comes from Latin "Onko" and means "cancer". Proto-oncogenes are the same genes in a state before mutation or any other kind of transformation happens to them which finally converts the proto-oncogene into the oncogene. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.19.116.201 (talk) 23:16, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Except the gene might not change at all: the change might occur in another gene, or in a promoter, and lead to "cancer". Because of historical reasons these genes might still be called proto-oncogenes/oncogenes (they were discovered much before the genome got decrypted). The nomenclature makes no sense in any case as "cancer" is an ill defined and multiple pathology. The name came into existence way before people realised gene expression is somewhat more complicated than gene A produces some protein B. Now we realise that the name we gave for genes should have been the name for an expression pattern.CyrilleDunant (talk) 01:28, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

I also came here to understand the distinction between proto-oncogene and oncogene, which is not at all clear in the article. I would like to add that the problem is further compounded by having an "activated-oncogene". If you start with the proto-oncogene as the non-mutated version of the gene then the mutated form (the oncogene) would seem to be the (activated) oncogene! Hope somebody can clarify the associated between these three terms in the article. Thanks. 165.225.81.77 (talk) 16:09, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

Philadelphia Chromosome?

In the proto oncogene section it says "Another example of an oncogene is the Bcr-Abl gene found on the Philadelphia Chromosome" the bolded section seams wrong but I don't know what to replace it with. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.171.62.41 (talk) 12:20, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Molecular Genetics

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 August 2023 and 15 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Rudrateja24 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Jellyfish829 (talk) 11:29, 13 December 2023 (UTC)