Question

Which Type of Mutation Causes the Most Damage?

Answer 1

Mutation: A mutation is defined as a change in the base pair or a deletion of a few base pairs that affects the function of a gene or an entire chromosome.

Mutations can occur naturally or it can also be induced. Three such ways are:

Mutations may arise at low frequency due to the chemical instability of purine and pyrimidine bases and the errors occurred during DNA replication.

Natural exposure to certain environmental factors, such as ultraviolet light and chemical carcinogens can also cause mutations.

Intake of high doses of chemical mutagens or exposing to ionizing radiation may also cause mutation to occur.

So, Frameshift mutation gives most damage to the cells or organisms.

1. Insertion or deletion of sequence of nucleotides which leads to frameshift mutation is more damaging.
2. It causes changes in the subsequent amino acid sequences in a polypeptide chain.
3. Point mutation only alters one amino acid, whereas frame-shift mutation alters the whole sequence of amino acids following the mutation.
4. A type of gene mutation in which the addition or deletion of one or more nucleotide(s) causes a shift in the reading frame of the codons in the mRNA, which may lead to the alteration in the amino acid sequence at protein translation is known as frameshift mutation.