Final answer:
A nonsense mutation in the malt protein would cause premature termination of translation and result in a truncated or non-functional protein. This would likely disrupt the normal transcription and translation processes in the mal operon.
Step-by-step explanation:
A nonsense mutation in the malt protein would result in a codon that specifies a stop signal instead of an amino acid. This would cause premature termination of translation and result in a truncated or non-functional protein. In the context of the mal operon, a nonsense mutation in the malt protein would likely disrupt the normal transcription and translation processes.