AP Biology Unit 6: Focus on Mutations and Biotechnology Concepts

mutations

changes in the genetic material of a cell, which can alter phenotypes; primary source of genetic variation; can be small or large scale

essential

normal function and production of cellular products is ___; any disruption can cause new phenotypes

large scale

chromosomal changes; nondisjunctions, translocation, inversions, duplications, and deletions

small scale

nucleotide substitutions, insertions, or deletions

point mutations

change a single nucleotide pair of a gene

substitution

the replacement of one nucleotide and its partner with another pair of nucleotides

silent

change still codes for the same amino acid

missense

change results in a different amino acid

nonsense

change results in a stop codon

frame shift mutation

when the reading frame of the genetic info is altered; has disasterous effects for resulting proteins

insertion

a nucleotide is inserted

deletion

a nucleotide is removed

nondisjunction

when chromosomes do not separate properly in meiosis; results in incorrect number of chromosomes

translocation

a segment of one chromosome moves to another

inversions

a segment is reversed

duplications

a segment is repeated

deletions

a segment is lost

prokaryotes

can exchange genetic material through horizontal gene transfer

beneticial

of a mutation is ___ to the survival and reproduction of that prokaryote, then it can also be transferred

transduction

viral transmission of genetic material

conjugation

cell to cell transfer of DNA

transposition

movement of DNA segments within and btw DNA molecules

biotechnology

both DNA and RNA can be manipulated through genetic engineering

gel electrophoresis

a technique used to separate DNA fragments by size; DNA is loaded into wells and an electric current is applied

DNA fragments

are negatively charged, so they move toward positive electrode

polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

a method used in molecular biology to make several copies of a specific DNA segment; segments of DNA are amplified; results are ANALYZED

DNA sequencing

the process of determining the order of nucleotides in DNA