Q3 - Two Molecular Subtypes of DLBCL Lymphoma

Theoretical A Real exam question - full text reproduced under IBO's CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Sir Edwin Southern (1938-present) invented microarrays to analyse the expression of hundreds of genes simultaneously. A microarray has probes printed onto it which detect a specific complementary mRNA. These probe for mRNAs expressed from across the genome. Diffuse Large B Cell lymphomas (DLBCL) from tens of patients were analysed by microarray (1). Additionally, patient survival rates for two clinical subtypes of DLBCLs were measured (2).

Figure for Q3: Two Molecular Subtypes of DLBCL Lymphoma

Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.

A. The data rule out patient survival rate being determined by differences in gene expression between DLBCL subtypes.

B. Gene expression data suggest there are two major subtypes of DLBCL distinguishable at the molecular level.

C. Measuring the expression of a single gene is sufficient to distinguish subtypes of DLBCLs.

D. Each subtype of DLBCL has an equal number of relatively up-regulated versus down-regulated genes compared to other subtypes.

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Question reproduced from IBO 2017, Theoretical Exam A, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Official answer key & worked solutions