Mutations

What do you think about when you hear the word mutation? When I was younger, I thought that mutations had something to do with superheroes and Ninja Turtles. What I was thinking when I was younger was the fictional definition. Today I’ll be talking about the microbiological definition. A mutation is a change in genetic code or nucleic acids. Mutations can be harmful, beneficial, and neutral. Mutations are random though. An organism can just will itself to get a mutation. There can be things to make mutations occur though. Internal and external factors could be a cause of this. I’m going to talk about the two different types of mutation: chromosomal and genetic mutations.

I’ll talk about genetic mutations first.

Genetic Mutations:

Substitution happens when one base is switched with another base. Insertion happens when a base added to a DNA strand. Deletion is when a base is removed from a DNA strand. Deletion and insertion are extremely dangerous. Why? Well, each tRNA has 3 anticodons which are supposed to bind with specific bases. If the anticodons are not able to bind properly, there could be some problems.

Chromosomal Mutations:

Duplication happens when too many copies of genes are generated. Deletion happens when a gene is removed from a chromosome. Inversion happens when genes are switched around in a chromosome. Translocation happens when a part of a chromosome breaks off and attaches to another chromosome.

Here is a video from the Amoeba Sisters on this topic:

Thanks for reading!

#ZoeOduntan

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