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Which of the following statements is NOT true regarding site-directed mutagenesis?

A: It makes very small changes in a DNA sequence.
B: It involves DNA polymerase that adds complementary bases to an altered primer using normal DNA as a template.
C: It can be used to alter the regulatory region of a gene in order to study its effect on gene expression.
D: It is conducted in mice.
E: It can be used to eliminate the function of a gene.

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The statement that is NOT true regarding site-directed mutagenesis is that it is conducted in mice (statement D). Site-directed mutagenesis involves precise DNA modifications and is used across various organisms, not just mice.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement that is NOT true regarding site-directed mutagenesis is: D: It is conducted in mice. While site-directed mutagenesis can be applied in research involving mice, the technique itself is not exclusive to these animals and can be performed on DNA from a variety of organisms. Site-directed mutagenesis involves making precise, targeted changes to a DNA sequence using specialized techniques in molecular biology.

Site-directed mutagenesis does indeed make very small changes, typically involving the alteration of just a few nucleotides in a DNA sequence (statement A). Moreover, site-directed mutagenesis does involve DNA polymerase, which adds complementary bases to an altered primer using the normal DNA sequence as a template (statement B). This technology can be used to modify the regulatory regions of genes to study gene expression effects (statement C) and to create null mutations, effectively knocking out the function of a gene (statement E).

QuickChange site-directed mutagenesis is particularly useful because it does not require restriction enzyme digestion or ligation, thus simplifying the process and reducing the time required for mutagenesis from about a week to one to two days. It's important to note that QuickChange mutagenesis allows modifications of only a few nucleotides at a time and provides less significant amplification of the target DNA sequence than conventional PCR, meaning that a sufficient quantity of mutated DNA must be produced for successful experiments.

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