Types Of Mutations

Different types of mutations can either be advantageous or disadvantageous to any living organism. It can either be evolutionary advantageous or cause structural abnormality on the organism which has undergone mutation. But what is mutation?

When the DNA sequence transforms permanently from its initial state to acquire a new structure then mutation is said to have taken place. There are very many factors which contribute to this kind of change. They can be internal factors which are referred to as endogenous or external factors which are referred to as the exogenous.

Internal factors include errors which occur during gene replication while external factors may include excessive exposure to dangerous sunlight or any other forms of radiations such as nuclear radiations.

There are very many ways through which mutation can take place. Some of the most common types of mutations include:

Deletion

Deletion refers to the removal or deletion of genetic materials. At times a chromosome can either be partially or completely lost. This will definitely result into a new genetic structure which will come with its unique traits. It parent organism and the new organism which will be having fewer number of genetic material will be having totally different traits which can either be advantageous to the organism of disadvantage it depending on the nature of the genetic material which have been deleted.

Frameshift

The message which is parsed within the DNA is very important for the functionality of the genetic system. The protein-coding DNA is normally divided in codons which are usually three bases which can either experience insertion of deletion. Deletion as earlier defined refers to removal of genetic material while insertion is the addition of base material into another new location in the DNA.

This alters the genetic structure making the message to be parsed in appropriately. This process is referred to as frameshift. In the long run, the proteins truncated due to these types of mutations are always useless.

Substitution

These are also common types of mutations. It involves the exchange of one base for another. For instance, a base T can be exchanged with G which makes the resulting DNA structure to be totally different from the original DNA structure and therefore the information which the new structure will have is totally different. It can either be advantageous or disadvantageous to the resulting specie.

These type of mutation can also be referred to as silent mutations especially when the codon is changed to one which encodes similar amino acids making it to have no effects in the resultant protein.

It can also result to incomplete protein which may not function as required or the change of codon to one which encodes a totally different amino acids resulting to a change in proteins thereby causing or making the victim to vulnerable to other forms of diseases.

Translocation

In this type of mutation, a given genetic material may at time be exchanged between more than one chromosomes which are non-homogeneous.

These are some of the most common types of mutations which occur in the DNA structure.