Fig. 1.

[The concept of synthetic lethality] Synthetic lethality is defined as a combination of mutations in two or more separate genes or proteins that induce cell death. For example, if a cell suffers the loss or inhibition of either gene/protein A or B alone, it remains viable, while mutation or pharmacological inhibition of an interaction partner of gene/protein a or b will result in cell death. Synthetic dosage lethality (SDL) (part a). Conditional synthetic lethality (part b)