Mutation Flashcards
What is a mutation?
A stable, heritable alteration to the genetic material
What is a mutagen?
Any chemical capable of inducing heritable changes to the genetic material
What type of mutations are passed on?
Germline mutations
What is the background mutation rate caused by?
Spontaneous mutation
What is induced mutation?
Mutations caused by external agent or mutagen, such as radiation or noxious chemicals that increase mutation rate above background rate
What do somatic mutations have an impact on? 2
- Ageing
- Cancer (activation of oncogenes or inactivation of tumour supressor genes)
How many inherited defects are there in humans?
Over 3000
List 4 recessive diseases
- CF
- Thalassemia
- Tay Sachs disease
- Sickle cell Anemia
What happens in CF?
Breakdown in iron channels in the lung and pancrease lead to defects in functioning of the lung and excretion of enzymes by the pancrease
What does Thalassemia provide?
Malaria resistance
Where does the mutation for Albinism normally occur?
Early on in the Melanin chemical pathway in the tyrosinase causing no melanin to be produced
Name two dominant disorders
- Huntington’s
- Polycsytic kidney disease
Name 2 x-linked disorders
- DMD
- Haemophilia A
List 5 inherited cancer predispositions
- Li-Fraumeni (p53)
- BRCA 1 & 2
- HNPCC (mismatch repair system)
- Xerogerma pigmentosum (excision repair system)
- Retinoblastoma (pRb)
Functionally recessive but inherited in a dominant fashion
What is a complex disorder?
Many genes acting together. Recessive or dominant affect. Low penetrance
What are polymorphisms?
Fixed mutation at a frequency of >2%
What are Copy Number Variations (CNVs)?
Large portions of DNA that different from person to person (can be repetitive DNA)
List 4 systems that mutations can derive from
- Replication - rate of error incorporation
- Recombination - gene conversion
- Repair - efficacy of repair
- Metabolism - oxygen species can be mutagenic
What are gross mutations?
Chromosomal in scope - deletions, inversion and translocations
Non-Disjunction mutations
Errors in chromosomal segregation - one daughter cell ends up with too many or not enough chromosomes
5 disorders caused by Non-Disjunction trisomy
- Edwards’ Syndrome
- Down’s Syndrome
- Patau’s Syndrome
- Klinefelter’s Syndrome
- Triple X
2 disorders caused by Non-Disjunction deletions
- Turner’s Syndrome
- Cri du Chat
What is an important gene deleted in Cri du Chat?
TERT (telomerase reverse transcription) which is important for telomere function
When does Non-Disjunction occur most?
During Meiosis I
When do most T18 happen?
MII
When do most T16 happen?
MI
Deletion mutation
Loss of a piece of DNA from a chromosome, making a smaller chromosome
Duplication mutation
DNA is copied and inserted into another chromosome
Inversion mutation
A piece of DNA is cut out, turned back to front and reinserted into another chromosome. DNA could be moved to part of a chromosome that has less activity
Insertion mutation
Part of a chromosome removed from one chromosome and inserted into another (original chromosome is now smaller)
Translocation mutation
Swapping event between chromosomes, no loss of DNA
What is a Philadelphia Chromosome?
Part of chromosome 9 and 22 is swapped. This fuses the ABL gene (a kinase causing growth proliferation) to the break point cluster which has a powerful promoter and drives expression of ABL causes cell to become tumorigenic
Chromothripsis
Chromosome shatters and is randomly reassembled causing inversions, deletions, duplication etc (new chromosome has little resemblance to old) - involves 1 chromosome
Chromoplexy
Inter and intra - chromosomal rearrangements ( lesser number of events than chromothripsis)
can be duplication and deletions
3 Effects of gross mutations
- Gene dosage ( number of copy of a gene in genome)
Reduction to Hemizygosity and polyploidy/trisomy - Fusion genes - changing gene expression
- Disruption of other genes
Transposable elements
Small common sequences of DNA that are capable of making a copy of themselves and moving that somewhere else causing mutation
What are copia and gypsy?
Two families of TEs responsible for almost 50% of mutations with phenotypic effect in Drosophila
What percent of the human genome do LINEs, SINEs, SVA and Alu repeats make?
50%
What are base substitutions?
Micro-type mutations affecting a single base
Silent mutations
No change in AA
Missense mutation
Change to AA
Nonsense mutation
A codon that codes for an AA, changes to a codon that codes for a stop codon.
most serious
Frameshift mutations
the insertion or deletion of nucleotide bases in numbers that are not multiples of three. Can alter protein structure and cause translation to stop prematurely
Transitions (how many possibilites)
Pyrimidine exchanges for another (T<>C)
Purine exchanges for another (A<>G)
4 possibilities
Transversions (how many possibilities)
Pyrimidine changes to a purine or vice versa
8 possibilities
Ratio of transitions to transversions
2:1
Conclusions of the fluctuation test
Single cultures give similar numbers and different culture fluctuate significantly
Mutations are present in population before being subjected to selective pressure