Phylogenetic Analysis of Cancerous Genes (Human) for Conserved Domains Using Bioinformatics Tool
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69565/mls.v4i2.432Abstract
Cancer is a multifactorial process, most frequently induced by genetic mutations that affect key cellular processes such as DNA repair, apoptosis, immune signaling, and cell proliferation. Five representative human cancer-associated genes, TP53, TNF, IL-6, ATM, and APC, were studied with a set of bioinformatics tools to compare their sequence similarity, conserved domains, and protein structures. NCBI gene sequences were accessed and aligned using MEGA 12, and phylogenetic reconstruction was performed. Similarity-based clustering was observed, with TP53 and ATM grouped according to their roles in DNA damage response, and TNF and IL-6 grouped based on cytokine-mediated immune function. APC showed distinct sequence divergence, consistent with its unique role in Wnt signaling and in preventing colorectal cancer. Conserved domain prediction with the NCBI CDD tool confirmed the presence of functionally important regions in all five proteins, and protein translation by ExPASy and BLASTp showed similarity to human cancer proteins with known functions. 3D protein models provided structural details about possible mutation sites. These findings illustrate that, despite differences in their biological functions, these genes share functional similarities that can be leveraged to identify early cancer and target treatment. This synergy illustrates the utility of in silico resources in cancer genomics and underscores the need for further investigation of multi-gene therapeutic and diagnostic methods.
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