Lesson 7

Mutations

What is meant by "jumping genes"?

Mutations Explained

DNA Mutations

Types of Mutations

Silent mutation: a mutation that does not result in a change in the amino acid coded for and, therefore, does not cause any phenotypic change

Missense mutation: a mutation that results in the single substitution of one amino acid in the resulting polypeptide

Nonsense mutation: a mutation that converts a codon for an amino acid into a termination codon

Substitution: the replacement of one base in a DNA sequence by another base

Deletion: the elimination of a base pair or group of base pairs from a DNA sequence

Insertion: the placement of an extra nucleotide in a DNA sequence

Frameshift mutation: a mutation that causes the reading frame of codons to change, usually resulting in different amino acids being incorporated into the polypeptide

Mutation Examples

Normal sequence: GCU AAG CUU GAG UAU

ala lys leu glu tyr


Silent mutation: GCU AAG CUU GAA UAU

ala lys leu glu tyr

Regardless of the one letter change, the amino acid did not change!


Missense mutation: GCU AAG CAU GAG UAU

ala lys his glu tyr

The one letter change resulted in a different amino acid!

Nonsense mutation: GCU AAG CUU GAG UAA

ala lys his glu stop

Let us pretend that our sequence is much longer, the single letter change caused for a termination codon to appear!

Frameshift mutation: GCU AAG (C)UUG AGU AU

ala lys leu ser unknown

The deletion of the letter C, caused for the sequence to shift into a new order.

GCU AAG CCU UGA GUA U

ala lys pro stop

The insertion of the letter C, caused for the sequence to shift into a new order AND caused for a termination codon to appear!


DNA Damage and Repair

Sickle Cell Anemia

Blue Eyes?

Mutations you may not know about!