The effect of mutations on living organisms
The effect of mutations on living organisms
Mutations occur when there is a change in the base sequence on the DNA strand. Most mutations have absolutely no effect due to them occurring in the introns, or the “junk DNA”. However some mutations occur on the exons, and these are the ones that can be potentially harmful to the organism, although in some exceptional cases random mutations can be beneficial, and pressured mutations are almost always beneficial to the survival of a species. Harmful mutations can be caused by things such as semi conservative replication going wrong, or prolonged exposure to certain types of radiation. Some mutations on the exons also have no effect due to them being “silent mutations” where the bases change but still code for the same amino acid, for example, if GTC changes to GTT there would be no noticeable change due to both of these triplets coding for the same thing, glutamine. The first type of mutation is a substitution mutation, where one or more bases are swapped out during the process of DNA replication. Substitution mutations are often not that bad and do not cause huge negative effects, as it only effects one part of the DNA strand. The other type of mutation that can be harmful is the deletion mutation, where a whole base is totally removed from the genome, causing a frame shift (where every base has to move along one position in order to be read properly), causing every triplet to change. This can cause serious problems with the bodies proteins, leading to serious conditions such as cancer arising if the proteins change to the point where uncontrollable cell division occurs (the proto-oncogenes or tumour suppresor genes mutating) to create tumours and if left untreated can have serious effects on health and even death. Some mutations are not harmful however and they can be beneficial, mutations can occur due to selective pressures caused by geographical pressures such as weather conditions, an example of this is when
Mutations occur when there is a change in the base sequence on the DNA strand. Most mutations have absolutely no effect due to them occurring in the introns, or the “junk DNA”. However some mutations occur on the exons, and these are the ones that can be potentially harmful to the organism, although in some exceptional cases random mutations can be beneficial, and pressured mutations are almost always beneficial to the survival of a species. Harmful mutations can be caused by things such as semi conservative replication going wrong, or prolonged exposure to certain types of radiation. Some mutations on the exons also have no effect due to them being “silent mutations” where the bases change but still code for the same amino acid, for example, if GTC changes to GTT there would be no noticeable change due to both of these triplets coding for the same thing, glutamine. The first type of mutation is a substitution mutation, where one or more bases are swapped out during the process of DNA replication. Substitution mutations are often not that bad and do not cause huge negative effects, as it only effects one part of the DNA strand. The other type of mutation that can be harmful is the deletion mutation, where a whole base is totally removed from the genome, causing a frame shift (where every base has to move along one position in order to be read properly), causing every triplet to change. This can cause serious problems with the bodies proteins, leading to serious conditions such as cancer arising if the proteins change to the point where uncontrollable cell division occurs (the proto-oncogenes or tumour suppresor genes mutating) to create tumours and if left untreated can have serious effects on health and even death. Some mutations are not harmful however and they can be beneficial, mutations can occur due to selective pressures caused by geographical pressures such as weather conditions, an example of this is when