Are all mutations harmful
“All genetic mutations are detrimental and are harmful to the organism.” Discuss with examples
Mutations are random changes to the genetic material; this could either be a chromosome mutation which involves changes in the whole or part of the chromosome or DNA mutations which is where the changes are to the nucleotide base sequences. The ‘change’ to DNA is either a base deletion, substitution, addition or by inversion or repetition of a triplet. Many cases of genetic mutations can be very harmful to the organism causing particularly bad mutations where as some are know as silent/neutral as they have no effect. However without genetic mutations there would be no evolution as it is down to these random changes that either cause an organism to have an advantage which allows it to out compete other organisms and survive and reproduce to pass on its characteristic to its offspring, the is how natural selection occurs. DNA is a very stable molecule so this reduces the chances of corruption although mistakes for occur during mitosis or meiosis when the genetic material is being transcript and translated. There are two main classes of genetic mutations. Firstly there are point mutations which are where there is a change in only one base pair this could either because it has been deleted or replaced by a different pair. On most occasions this is known to be a silent mutation because it has no effect as the same protein is made. This is possible because the codons are detrimental meaning that there is more than one codon to code for a single amino acid, so GTA is replaced by GTG it will still code for valine. On the other hand such a small mistake can cause horrible diseases. This tiny mistake can have devastating affects to the organism. Another example is sickle-cell anaemia which happens because of a point mutation at codon 6 for the gene for beta-polypeptide chains of haemoglobin. This causes the amino acid valine to be inserted instead of a glutamic acid.
Mutations are random changes to the genetic material; this could either be a chromosome mutation which involves changes in the whole or part of the chromosome or DNA mutations which is where the changes are to the nucleotide base sequences. The ‘change’ to DNA is either a base deletion, substitution, addition or by inversion or repetition of a triplet. Many cases of genetic mutations can be very harmful to the organism causing particularly bad mutations where as some are know as silent/neutral as they have no effect. However without genetic mutations there would be no evolution as it is down to these random changes that either cause an organism to have an advantage which allows it to out compete other organisms and survive and reproduce to pass on its characteristic to its offspring, the is how natural selection occurs. DNA is a very stable molecule so this reduces the chances of corruption although mistakes for occur during mitosis or meiosis when the genetic material is being transcript and translated. There are two main classes of genetic mutations. Firstly there are point mutations which are where there is a change in only one base pair this could either because it has been deleted or replaced by a different pair. On most occasions this is known to be a silent mutation because it has no effect as the same protein is made. This is possible because the codons are detrimental meaning that there is more than one codon to code for a single amino acid, so GTA is replaced by GTG it will still code for valine. On the other hand such a small mistake can cause horrible diseases. This tiny mistake can have devastating affects to the organism. Another example is sickle-cell anaemia which happens because of a point mutation at codon 6 for the gene for beta-polypeptide chains of haemoglobin. This causes the amino acid valine to be inserted instead of a glutamic acid.