When you think about the replication of DNA, it is actually quite complex. There are many components necessary to duplicate the genome, including proteins and the correct environment. Considering the number of base pairs in the genome, the duplication of it is quite astounding, especially while trying to duplicate it with minimal errors. This is why there are checkpoints during which the cell checks for DNA damage, the preparation of the correct proteins, and whatever else is necessary to continue with the replication process. There is also a proofreading function built into the DNA polymerase that is extending new strands of DNA, and this helps minimize the number of mutations. Still, mutations are not uncommon when DNA is being synthesized. Point mutations are when a base pair is entered wrongly. This can be harmless and result in a silent mutation, meaning the resulting amino acid is still the same as the original sequence would have coded for. Still, there are worse effects that can result. A nonsense mutation is when the change causes a stop codon to be coded for too early. There are also other missense mutations where a different amino acid than was meant to be is entered due to the mutation. This can alter the entire protein that is being coded for in the DNA. Of course, all of these mutations are assuming that the mutation occured in the coding region of the DNA. Other mutations can go unnoticed because it is within an intron region.
Recent comments