English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

1 answers

Frameshift mutations create a protein that has a different primary structure (ie form and function) since the ribosomes do not 'know' that the codon reading frame is 'off'.

Substitution mutations may have no effect or some effect, depending on the base that changes. Consider wobble (see genetic code for all the amino acids that are coded for by same two first bases)
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/MGA2-03-28.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/MGA2_03-20.html&h=1000&w=1172&sz=135&tbnid=pvhXPeyS1CPKdM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgenetic%2Bcode&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

Also consider the story of sickle cell, where a one-base change results in the substotution of an acidic amino acid with a nonpolar amino acid. This causes a change in conformation (ionic bond is removed) and thus a change in function.

Frameshift mutations can be one or two bases being either added or removed from the sequence, while substitutions are usually one base only.

2007-01-17 18:33:50 · answer #1 · answered by teachbio 5 · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers