Briefly mentioned in class, the p53 gene is responsible for about 50% of all cancers. It was originally believed to be an oncogene due to its presence in cancer cells inducing transformation in gene assays. They have been correctly identified as a tumor suppressor gene. The provided article is collective source material with information about the p53 gene. The article identifies its purpose in the abstract and details the models for p53 activation, p53 effector functions, and a large section on context dependence. Since there are many different circumstances in which p53 causes different effects, there is an implication that context dependence is affected by the type of cell, genetic background of the cell, cell environment, and amount of stress applied on the cell.
The source is reliable and helpful in understanding this concept. The source uses several other articles in PubMed Central, the free archive of biomedical and life sciences academic journals. There is no “opinion” presented, however the conclusion does note that despite the vast amounts of information, “the next imperative duty is to unravel the mechanisms that dictate the biological outputs of the p53 network.” The source accepts that more understanding is necessary to help in treating cancers or other related disorders.
Zilfou, J. T., & Lowe, S. W. (2009). Tumor suppressive functions of p53. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology, 1(5), a001883. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a001883
Cellular Biology Business 