Hereditary Honors

carrier

• someone who carries the recessive trait, but doesn’t show it due to having a dominant “X” to mask it. Carriers are heterozygous!

mutation

any change in the DNA sequence of a cell

duplication

a mutation where a gene (section of DNA) is duplicated or replicated.

translocation

a mutation where sections of DNA get traded between the wrong chromosomes.

Nondisjunction

When chromosomes DO NOT separate correctly during Meiosis 1 or Meiosis 2. This causes cells to have the wrong number of chromosomes.

Missense mutation

A single base changes, but the amino acid is different. Severity varies for this mutation.

ex (dwarfism)

Nonsense Mutation

A single base change that codes for an early or premature stop codon. There’s a very serious effect!

ex (hurler syndrome)

Insertion Mutation

• A mutation where one or more bases are added into the DNA sequence.

ex (crohns disease)

Deletion Mutation

• A mutation where one or more bases are removed from the DNA sequence.

ex (albinism)

silent mutation

A mutation that does not alter the amino acid sequence of a protein, often due to redundancy in the genetic code.