genetics Flashcards
what is a mutagenic agent?
substance that can induce mutation and increase their likelhihood
what is a chromosome mutation?
a change in the number or sequence of
genes on a chromosome
what are three types of mutagenic agent?
- virus
- chemicals
- radiation
what is a somatic mutation?
body cell mutation that only affects one organism and cannot be inherited
what is a germ-line mutation?
sex cell mutation that can be passed to future generations
what are 4 methods of mutation?
- insertion/deletion
- translocation
- substitution/inversion
- duplication
what is a translocation chromosome mutation?
when a section of a chromosome breaks off and attaches to a different chromosome
what is an inversion chromosome mutation?
when a section of a chromosome breaks off and attaches to the same chromosome, but is inverted
why do most mutations not have an effect on us?
- non coding genes aren’t involved in protein synthesis so nothing changes
- degenerate codes means most mutations produce the same polypeptide
what is the effect of insertion or deletion of a nucleotide?
- new triplet code is created as every nucleotide is shifted
- now codes for a different polypeptide chain with a different function or no function
what are the 3 types of substitution mutation?
- silent
- missense
- nonsense
what is a silent substitution?
mutation does not alter the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide due to degenerate code
what is a missense substitution?
mutation alters a single amino acid in the polypeptide chain eg. sickle cell anaemia
what is a nonsense substitution?
mutation creates a premature stop codon causing the polypeptide chain produced to be incomplete and therefore affecting the final protein structure and function
what is a beneficial mutation?
provides a selective advantage eg. sickle cell anaemia helped prevent death by malaria as the protist couldn’t live in the erythrocyte
what is a neutral mutation?
has no advantage or disadvantage
what is a harmful mutation?
provides a damaging disadvantage to an organism
what are the 3 types of regulatory mechanisms
- transcriptional level
- post transcriptional level
- post translational level
what is a structural gene?
codes for a protein that has a function within a cell
what is a regulatory gene?
code for proteins that control the expression of structural genes
what is a promoter?
DNA sequence which sits between the regulatory gene and the first structural gene and is a binding site for RNA polymerase to carry out transcription
what is an operator?
segment of DNA to which a repressor binds to inhibit the transcription of a gene
what are the two types of transcription factors?
repressor and activator
how does an activator work?
binds to the promoter, and if RNA polymerase also binds, transcription occurs
how does a repressor work?
produced by regulatory gene and binds to operator which means that when RNA polymerase binds to operator transcription of structural genes cannot occur
what is an operon?
a cluster of structural genes that is under the control of one promoter
made of:
- cluster of structural genes
- promoter
- operator