Protein synthesis begins when the gene encoding a protein is activated. The gene’ s sequence of nucleotides is transcribed into

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问题     Protein synthesis begins when the gene encoding a protein is activated. The gene’ s sequence of nucleotides is transcribed into a molecule of messenger RNA(mRNA), which reproduces the information contained in that sequence. Transported outside the nucleus to the cytoplasm, the mRNA is translated into the protein it encodes by an organelle known as a ribosome, which strings together amino acids in the order specified by the sequence of elements in the mRNA molecule. Since the amount of mRNA in a cell determines the amount of the corresponding protein, factors affecting the abundance of mRNA’ s play a major part in the normal functioning of a cell by appropriately regulating protein synthesis. For example, an excess of certain proteins can cause cells to proliferate abnormally and become cancerous; a lack of the protein insulin results in diabetes.
    Biologists once assumed that the variable rates at which cells synthesize different mRNA’ s determine the quantities of mRNA’s and their corresponding proteins in a cell. However, recent investigations have shown that the con- centrations of most mRNA’ s correlate best, not with their synthesis rate, but rather with the equally variable rates at which cells degrade the different mRNA’ s in their cytoplasm. If a cell de- grades both a rapidly and a slowly synthesized mRNA slowly, both mRNA’ s will accumulate to high levels.
    An important example of this phenomenon is the development of red blood cells from their unspecialized parent cells in bone marrow. For red blood cells to accumulate sufficient concentrations of hemoglobin(which transports oxygen) to carry out their main function, the cells’ parent cells must simultaneously produce more of the constituent proteins of hemoglobin and less of most other proteins. To do this, the parent cells halt synthesis of non- hemoglobin mRNA’s in the nucleus and rapidly degrade copies of the non-hemoglobin mRNA’s remaining in the cytoplasm. Halting synthesis of mRNA alone would not affect the quantities of proteins synthesized by the mRNA’ s still existing in the cytoplasm. Biologists now believe that most cells can regulate protein production most efficiently by varying both mRNA synthesis and degradation, as developing red cells do, rather than by just varying one or the other.
To begin to control a disease caused by a protein deficiency, the passage suggests that a promising experimental treatment would be to administer a drug that would reduce

选项 A、only the degradation rate for the mRNA of the protein involved.
B、only the synthesis rate for the mRNA of the protein involved.
C、both the synthesis and degradation rates for the mRNA of the protein involved.
D、the incidence of errors in the transcription of mRNA’ s from genetic nucleotide sequences.
E、the rate of activity of ribosomes in the cytoplasm of most cells.

答案A

解析 如果要控制一种由蛋白质不足引起的疾病,需要实验一种只降低什么的药物?从原文结论(最后一句)推理,蛋白质的量决定于其mRNA的合成和降解速率。因此,要控制此疾病,即要能增加蛋白质的量。∴A正确。只减少蛋白质中mRNA降解的速率。B、C、D、E和原文结论不符。
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本试题收录于: GMAT VERBAL题库GMAT分类
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