Which of the following mutations would be the LEAST likely to have a harmful effect on an organism? A. insertion of three nucleotides near the middle of a gene B. a single nucleotide substitution that produces a codon that codes for the same amino acid C. a single nucleotide insertion near the end of the coding sequence D. a single nucleotide insertion close to the start of the coding sequence
Which of the following mutations would be the LEAST likely to have a harmful effect on an organism?
A mutation is defined as the change in the DNA sequence, either due to mistakes during DNA replication or because of various environmental factors such as exposure to mutagens, ionizing radiations, or viral infections. Mutations that occur in the germlines are passed on through generations. Cells contain DNA damage repair mechanisms to repair such mutations.
DNA mutations can be categorized into three major types, missense mutation, nonsense mutation, and silent mutations. In missense mutation, a change in the DNA base pair sequence causes a different amino acid to be coded by the altered codon and as a result, a different protein is formed by the gene. In nonsense mutation, the change in a base pair of DNA results in the formation of a stop codon that forms a truncated protein. A silent mutation occurs when a base pair change in the DNA does not alter the amino acid sequence in the protein since the wild type and altered codon codes for the same amino acid.
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