Make a claim about the most immediate effect on the fused B-cancer cells if the fused cells are transferred to a growth medium that lacks a source of nitrogen.

Question

Please also Provide reasoning with evidence based on the composition of biological macromolecules to support your claim.

Answer 1

1. If the fused cells are transferred to a growth medium that lacks a source of nitrogen the cells will experience nitrogen-stress, stop producing monoclonal antibodies and eventually die. The DNA and the amino acids, all contain nitrogen as a functional building block. If nitrogen is absent DNA replication will be affected thereby affecting the protein production as amino acids will be defective which will ultimately lead to death of the cell.

2. The biological macromolecules like DNA and amino acids contain Nitrogen. The very structure of an amino acid is incomplete without a Nitrogen where the amino group contains a Nitrogen. In case of DNA, the bases - purines and pyrimidines that make up the nucleotides have Nitrogen in their basic framework/structure. The amino acids together form proteins. Antibodies are proteins, so if amino acids are not produced, the monoclonal antibodies will also not be produced. Also for DNA replication and transcription, dNTPs and rNTPs are required, which are also fundamentally composed of Nitrogen. So, without nitrogen the cells will die.