Genetic Mutations POGIL Answer Key

How many nucleotides are a part of a codon?

Answer: 3


Does an mRNA sequence that codes for “stop” actually count as an amino acid?

Answer: no


What is the result of a substitution mutation?

Answer: ONE codon changes which causes ONE amino acid to be different from the normal 


amino acid sequence


What is an insertion mutation?

Answer: An additional nucleotide is inserted in the normal sequence, which lengthens the sequence


What is a deletion mutation?

Answer: An existing nucleotide is removed in the normal sequence, which shortens the sequence


Would all substitution mutations lead to a change in the amino acid sequence?

Answer: No because if the last letter in a codon changed, the same amino acid is expressed than if the last nucleotide had not been changed.


Would all insertion or deletion mutations lead to a change in the amino acid sequence?


Answer: Yes because any new nucleotide that is inserted / deleted shifts the nucleotides, changing the letters of multiple codons.


Would a substitution or insertion mutation pose more damage (or a greater benefit) to an organism?

Answer: Insertion because it has the potential to change a majority of the normal amino acid sequence, as the reading frame shifts.


Would a deletion mutation at the beginning of a DNA sequence or at the end pose more damage (or a greater benefit) to an organism?


Answer: The beginning because the codons following would all change, whereas a deletion mutation at the end would not affect the codons that were present before.


What is the range of changes in the amino acid sequence that can result from a substitution mutation?


Answer: One amino acid may change but the others can remain the same; the amino acid 

sequence may be stopped too early; no protein will be translated because of a lack of a start codon



Gene mutations can be _____ or ______

Answer: misense or nonsense


Gene mutations can be ______ or ______ or _______

Answer: positive, negative, neutral


What are misense mutations?

Answer: An amino acid is still produced but the wrong amino acid is produced


What are nonsense mutations?

Answer: No amino acid is produced; causes a stop codon to occur


What is a neutral mutation?

Answer: The sequence is mutated but the same amino acid sequence is produced as the “normal” one


What is a positive mutation?

Answer: The mutation somehow benefits the cell


What is a negative mutation?

Answer: The mutation somehow harms the cell


What is the source of new alleles in nature?

Answer: Mutations


Which types of mutations, positive, negative, or neutral, are most likely to be seen in offspring several generations after the mutation occurred?


Answer: Neutral or positive because those help an organism survive and are passed on through generation.


Is a positive mutation inside a single bacteria cell likely to be passed on to the offspring of an organism?

Answer: Yes, because bacterial replication produces an offspring that is genetically identical to the parent. Also, positive mutations are favored in nature.


Is a positive mutation on a skill cell on a cat likely to be passed on to the offspring of an organism?

Answer: No because a skin cell is not involved in replication.


Is a positive mutation on a sperm cell in a whale likely to be passed on to the offspring of an organism?

Answer: Yes because this mutation could be passed through replication (meiosis)


If each cell has multiple mutations, why do most of us have normally-functioning tissues and organs?

Answer: Not all mutations are bad!



Why is only a tiny subset of mutations that we have passed on to our children?

Answer: Only mutations in the egg and sperm cell are passed down


Why are negative mutations in transcription or translation not as serious as mutations in a gene?

Answer: The mutations don’t change the DNA itself but rather an RNA molecule or a protein


What are insertion and deletion mutations also called?

Answer: Frameshift mutations


What is the reading frame?

Answer: Sets of three nucleotides of mRNA


1. When did Hershey and Chase find radioactivity inside the bacterial cells?

Answer: only when the phage DNA contained radioactive phosphurus


2. Which result did Frederick Griffith observe in his experiments?

Answer: forms


3. What did Oswald Avery learn from his experiments?

Answer: No bacterial information occurred when DNA was destroyed


4. What did Avery conclude was the transforming principle?

Answer: DNA


5. What kind of molecule did most scientists in the early 1900s think carried genetic material?

Answer: Protein


1. What is the term that describes a unit made of a sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen-containing base?

Answer: nucleotide


4. What did Rosalind Franklin’s DNA x-ray suggest?

Answer: It was a double helix


During replication the other strand of DNA serves as a——

Answer: template


What is the goal of DNA replication?

Answer: To make sure each new cell has a complete set of DNA


3. What is the function of DNA polymerase?

Answer: to bond nucleotides together


4. What feature of replication ensures that DNA is copied quickly?

Answer: copied in thousands of places


5. How does a cell ensure that no errors are introduced during replication?

Answer: DNA polymerase proofreads and corrects the new DNA


1. What molecule carries information from a gene to the ribosomes?

Answer: Mrna


1. What molecule carries the amino acid coded by mRNA to the ribosome?

Answer: Trna


2. How many bases code for a single amino acid?

Answer: 3


4. What happens if the mRNA reading frame is changed?

Answer: the amino acid sequence of the resulting protein changes


5. What forms the peptide bonds that link amino acids in a protein?

Answer: the ribosome


one base substitute

Answer: point mutation


deleted or added base

Answer: frameshift mutation


added base pair

Answer: Insertion


deleted base pair

Answer: deletion


results from an unequal crossing over

Answer: gene duplication


translocation

Answer: caused by the exchange of DNA segments bewtween non-homologous chromosomes


silent


Answer: no change in amino acids


missense

Answer: 1 amino acid change


nonsense

Answer: premature stop codon


codon

Answer: set of three nucleotides


What type of mutation is a translocation?

Answer: chromosomal mutation


2. How many bases are affected in a point mutation?

Answer: 1


no

Answer: is the stop codon coded for an amino acid



the codon changes which sometimes changes the amino acid that it was originally coded for

Answer: what are the effects of a substitution mutation


all letters move to the right one and the reading frame gets longer; possibility of new amino acids

Answer: what are the affects of an insertion mutation


all letters move to the left one and the reading frame gets shorter; possibility of new amino acids

Answer: what are the affects of an deletion mutation


substitution

Answer:mutation where two bases are switched


insertion

Answer:mutation where a base is added and your reading frame gets longer


deleted

Answer:mutation where a base is removed and your reading frame becomes shorter

true

Answer: T or F: there can be more than one codon for one amino acid


insertion/deletion

Answer: which type of mutation causes the most damage


no translation= no protein made

Answer: no start codon=


met

Answer: start codon


start codon

Answer:what must be present for translation to occur and for amino acids to be formed


better chances of survival

Answer:positive mutations lead to




gamete cells

Answer: which types of cells are mutations most commonly passed through


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