Question

How does the mutation involving a single nucleotide insertion affect the gene's protein?

a. It causes a frameshift mutation, changing the protein entirely.
b. It has no effect on the protein.
c. It leads to a minor structural change in the protein.
d. It deletes the protein entirely.

Answer 1

The insertion of a single nucleotide causes a frameshift mutation, significantly changing the entire protein structure and often resulting in a non-functional protein.

Step-by-step explanation:

How does a mutation involving a single nucleotide insertion affect the gene's protein? The correct answer is a. It causes a frameshift mutation, changing the protein entirely.

A frameshift mutation occurs when insertions or deletions of nucleotides in a DNA sequence are not a multiple of three, disrupting the normal reading frame of the gene. This alteration changes the way ribosomes read mRNA during translation, potentially altering every amino acid after the mutation site. Such a mutation can introduce a premature stop codon or result in a completely different, and often non-functional, protein. The severity of a frameshift mutation's effects can depend on its location in the gene; mutations earlier in the reading frame can result in more significant changes to the protein than those occurring later on.