Mutations

Question 1

What is a mutation?

Answer 1

‘A random change in the genetic material of an individual, the change can be large or small, beneficial to evolution or detrimental to the survival of the animal’.

Question 2

What are neutral mutations?

Answer 2

Mutations that do not have a negative or positive effect on the organism.

Question 3

What are examples of a Beneficial mutation?

Answer 3

• Colours/patterns
• Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
• Body structure

Question 4

What are examples of a Detrimental mutation?

Answer 4

• Genetic Disorders
• Cancer
• Albinism

Question 5

Explain the two categories of mutations.

Answer 5

• Spontaneous; These occur naturally, they are not frequent and are often unpredictable.
• Induced; Altercations in the gene after it has come in contact with mutagens and environmental causes e.g. chemicals, or radiation.

Question 6

What are the types of mutations?

Answer 6

• Point/Substitution - One base pair swapped for another.
  ~ Silent - the change occurs in non-coding regions of DNA so it does not affect the phenotype.
  ~ Missense - the codon now codes for a different amino acid.
  ~ Nonsense - The change codes for a stop codon resulting in an incomplete protein.
• insertion - Extra base pairs are inserted into the DNA sequence.
• Deletion - Base pairs are lost from the DNA.
• Duplication - Sections of DNA are repeated.
• Translocation - Sections of DNA either swap places or chromosomes join together.

Question 7

What are Frameshift mutations?

Answer 7

• They can alter the point from where a codon is read.
• It completely changes the amino acid sequences.
• This type of mutation may result in phenotypic changes.