mutations and genetic variation Flashcards
What does heritability mean?
It means the mutation is stable and can be passed on through cell division
What are mutations?
these are errors/changes in the replications as response to environment or general mistakes which then lead to alterations in daughter cells.
What is the genotype
this is different forms of the gene
what does homozygous mean
this means two of the same alleles as someone else ie both parents with blue eyes have a blue-eyed daughter.
what does heterozygous
one allele and then a different one next to it ie haveing the recessive gene for blue eyes but the dominant being brown so you have brown eyes.
what are point mutations?
these are caused by a one amino acid change in a single protein
what is the most common cause for mutations
can be caused by RNA viruses and retroviruses also DNA viruses
why are rna strands more prone to breakage?
since they are single stranded and they do not have the proof reading function.
what is a germ line mutation?
mutation in sperm/egg that is then incorporated into each offspring
what are somatic mutations?
mutations of each gene other than the sex genes. most commonly cancer forms from here.
what are some small scale mutations?
nucleotide substitution or point mutations for example:
silent mutations: do not change amino acid but instead nucleotide
missense mutation: changes amino acid
nonsense mutations: creates stop codon.
what are large scale mutations?
these can be insertions or deletions
what are transposable elements?
dna sequences that can move from one position to another in the genome, this can insert into a gene and disrupt the function.
what are copy-number variations?
can copy or delete more regions and can include one or more complete genes.
what is divergence and duplication?
when the tree diverges on evolution where the different genes will then change or duplicate causing a gene family to be created.
