Question

What is an example of missense mutation?

Answer 1

Hint: An alteration in the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism is termed as mutation. It is caused due to the error in DNA or during meiosis or mitosis. It may also occur due to the insertion or deletion of DNA segments of DNA.

Complete answer:
Mutation is defined as the heritable change or alteration in the nucleotide sequence of an organism, extrachromosomal DNA or in the genome of a virus. Genomes of viruses contain either DNA or RNA.

It may or may not cause a major change in the phenotype of an organism. For both normal and abnormal processes like cancer, evolution, immune system, etc., mutation plays a major role. It provides all the raw material for genetic variation in human beings. In genes mutation may not affect, may change the product of the gene, and it can also stop the gene from working properly.

There are two types of mutation: i) somatic mutation which occurs in cells of body and is not passed to the offsprings and ii) germ line mutation which occurs in the sex cell of an organism and it can pass to the offsprings also.

A missense mutation is a mistake in the DNA which results in the wrong amino acid being incorporated into a protein because of a change in a single nucleotide in DNA. Sickle cell anemia is the best example of missense mutation. This disease is caused due to change in a single base pair which then codes for different amino acids and it completely changes the function of protein. In the beta globin chain there is a change in codon from GAG to GTG which replaces glutamine to valine in the 6th position.

Note:
Mutation is defined as the change or alteration in the nucleotide sequence of an organism, extrachromosomal DNA or in the genome of a virus. Sickle cell anemia is the best example of missense mutation. This disease is caused due to change in a single base pair which then codes for different amino acids and it completely changes the function of protein.