Some thoughts on a possible relationship between known gene dosage effects and neoplastic transformation

An unbalanced gene load resulting from viral infection, oncogenic chemicals, or ionizing radiation can include excess regulatory genes which produce an increased concentration of repressors and thereby cause a decreased production of some regulated proteins. If these proteins are involved in the feedback loop for mitotic inhibition or in the maintainance of cell membrane properties needed to maintain the intracellular concentration of mitotic inhibitor, then their loss or decreased production as a result of the unbalanced gene load can lead to the loss of control over cell growth. A discussion of known gene dosage effects which support the model described above is given.