giving cancer to a tree.

[cameron marical]

could it be possible for every cell in an organism be cancerous? if so, what would happen? would it just become a giant lump of excess protein? could a tree have this? could it be alive for a longer amount of time, just growing and growing? would it take in more carbon and give out more oxygen?

[Psycho]

No as cancer cells don't do there required function. You could have a large mass of tumour cells but they would have to be in areas where they don't have a lethal action towards the organism.

[cameron marical]

how does cancer actually kill someone? im kind of new to cancer, sorry if this is an easy question.

[Mokele]

Old text on plant tumors and something newer

[jimmydasaint]

Tumors are growths of plants, animals, or men in which the normal processes of

control are, for some reason, ineffective, so that continued cell division results in

massive disorganized development. When they are localized and not seriously

inimical to the general functioning of the supporting body, they are called "benign."

When their location or manner of development is such as to kill the supporting

individual, they are called "malignant" and in man become "cancers."

Tumors may arise from many causes, including parasites and infections of many

kinds. The term "cancer," however, is generally limited to malignant tumors

which arise from no clearly recognizable cause and in which some one or more cells

of the host body have undergone a permanent change which renders them unaffected

by normal growth restraints so that the altered cell itself becomes a parasite

or an infectious agent.

From the old text Cameron

 

PS: It looks like the Agrobacterium uses opines and other carbohydrate sources to perform respiration and gives out carbon dioxide. Remember that parts of a tree that do not get sunlight, like roots also give out carbon dioxide and take in oxygen. If the leaves are damaged then the photosynthesis is seriously affected.

Edited April 12, 2009 by jimmydasaint

[CharonY]

It uses opines as C sources and electron donors. This is generally not referred to as respiration.

[jimmydasaint]

Thanks for the correction Charon Y. Yes, they use opines for the reasons you mentioned, and they also use sugars for aerobic respiration.

[cameron marical]

thanks.

 

a little of topic.

why do plants take in co2? i know that we use oxygen for heating and electricty{right?} but why would plants need that bit of carbon? where do they put it or what do they do with it? and also, what does the carbon come from in the co2 we breathe out?

 

thanks.

[Mokele]

Plants use the CO2 (along with water) to make sugars (which can be linked together to form starches).

 

When animals eat plants, we break down the starches and sugars to release the stored energy, turning them back into CO2 and H2O.

[cameron marical]

oh ok. thanks.

 

how is energy stored in molecules somewhere other than their atoms? sorry, im new to biology, used to be a physics person instead.

thanks.

[GDG]

oh ok. thanks.

 

how is energy stored in molecules somewhere other than their atoms? sorry, im new to biology, used to be a physics person instead.

thanks.

 

The energy is stored in their chemical bonds. To put it in Physics terms, if you take a pair of atoms that can form a stable chemical bond (say, two oxygen atoms), you find that bringing the atoms close enough together permits establishment of a wave function that minimizes the free energy of the pair (O2). In more "chemical" terms, forming a chemical bond by sharing electrons (not necessarily equally) lets the system fall into a lower energy state, releasing energy.

 

Of course, you usually don't have two high-energy atoms floating around loose: more typically, the atoms will already be bound in molecules. However, some molecules are more stable than others -- i.e., converting molecules that are less stable to those that are more stable releases some energy (equivalent to the difference in their stabilities).

 

Plants use CO2, water, sunlight, nitrates, and other nutrients to make cellulose (their main structural material) and carbohydrates like starch (which they use to store energy, or as an energy source for seeds), lipids and proteins. CO2 is more stable than sugars, starches, etc., so plants need to put in additional energy to drive the reaction.

 

Although we can't digest the cellulose (even though it is basically a polymer of sugar molecules), we certainly use the starch and protein. Breaking these back down into CO2 releases the energy that the plants collected and used to synthesize them in the first place.

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Merged post follows:

Consecutive posts merged

could it be possible for every cell in an organism be cancerous? if so, what would happen? would it just become a giant lump of excess protein? could a tree have this? could it be alive for a longer amount of time, just growing and growing? would it take in more carbon and give out more oxygen?

 

If all the cells were cancerous, you would no longer have an organism.

 

In animal tumors, you often find that all the cells at the center are necrotic (dead), and that only the cells around the outside of the tumor are alive. This is because the tumor cells don't provide for their own circulation: thus, the cells in the center (past the diffusion limit for O2 and nutrients) starve. I suspect that the same would apply to trees. (Some animal tumors secrete angiogenic factors, which stimulate the body to make blood vessels: these tumors can get much larger.)

 

For an interesting (although off-topic) read, check out the Wiki article on Devil Facial Tumor Disease, a cancer that is spread from Tasmanian devil to Tasmanian devil when they bite each other.

[cameron marical]

wow. i read that article. poor tasmanian devil. thats just horrible. if only i could find the source of cancer. i would punch it right in the face.

 

so why doesnt transmissable cancer work in all of cancer forms?

thanks.

[GDG]

wow. i read that article. poor tasmanian devil. thats just horrible. if only i could find the source of cancer. i would punch it right in the face.

 

so why doesnt transmissable cancer work in all of cancer forms?

thanks.

 

IIRC, in the TD case, there are several factors: first, the tumor cells grow on the face, and when TDs fight (which they often do), they can pass the cells from one face to another. Second, TDs have very low genetic diversity, and the animals fail to mount an immune response against the foreign tumor cells. Finally, these particular tumor cells appear to be adapted to spreading this way. I doubt that if you had melanoma, and rubbed your tumor against someone, that it would spread.

 

There is also "Canine transmissible venereal tumor" disease, which works much the same way, but will regress spontaneously (probably due to the dog's immune response).