Final answer:
All of the mutations listed, including Missense, Nonsense, Frameshift, and Splice site mutations, have the potential to cause a loss of function to the protein. The impact each has on protein function can vary, with frameshift mutations often leading to significant functional changes.
Step-by-step explanation:
Among the given options, E. Any of the above mutations can cause a protein to lose its function. Each type of mutation affects the protein in a different way:
- Missense mutation: This involves a change in one DNA base pair that results in the substitution of one amino acid for another in the protein. Depending on the importance of the substituted amino acid, this can result in a loss of protein function.
- Nonsense mutation: Results in a premature stop codon, leading to a truncated protein that is often nonfunctional.
- Frameshift mutation: Caused by insertions or deletions of a number of nucleotides not divisible by three, which shifts the reading frame of the codons in the mRNA. This typically results in a completely different and usually nonfunctional protein.
- Splice site mutation: Affects the sites where introns are removed from the RNA transcript (splicing). Incorrect splicing can result in altered proteins that often lack normal function.
Mutations can have varying effects, but in many cases, these mutations lead to a nonfunctional protein, with frameshift mutations usually having a more drastic effect compared to missense mutations which may retain some protein function depending on the context.