Types of mutagens
This type of mutation is caused by an organism’s treatment with an agent that alters its DNA.
What is an induced mutation?
The presence of these chemicals can lead to transitions, transversions, or frame shift mutations in DNA.
What are chemical mutagens?
Prolonged UV light exposure without repair mechanisms often leads to this form of uncontrolled cell growth.
What is cancer?
These mutations substitute one nucleotide for another, changing a single codon.
What is a point mutation?
UV light and X-rays are examples of this type of mutagen.
What is radiation?
This agent modifies DNA by adding a methyl group to nucleobases.
What is an alkylating agent?
X-rays cause this type of potentially lethal DNA damage, which can result in large chromosomal deletions.
What are double-strand breaks?
These mutations replace one base with another
What is a substitution mutation?
These elements can move within a genome, sometimes inactivating genes and altering the cell's genome.
What are transposons?
These chemicals change the base pairing properties of nucleobases, causing mutations during replication.
What are nucleobase modifying chemicals?
The structural distortion caused by thymine dimers interferes with this cellular process.
What is DNA replication?
These mutations occur when a nucleotide is inserted or deleted, shifting the reading frame of the codon.
What is a frameshift mutation?
These mutagens mimic nucleotides and cause base pairing errors during DNA replication.
What are base analogs?
This base analog closely resembles thymine, but often pairs with guanine instead of adenine.
What is 5-bromouracil?
UV light induces the formation of these abnormal covalentt linkages between thymine bases.
What are thymine dimers?
This type of mutation happens when a trasposon jumps into a new gene.
What is an insertion mutation?
This laboratory chemical type inserts itself between base pairs, pushing them apart and result in the addition or deletion of nucleotides.
What is an intercalating agent?
This chemichal mutagen adds methyl groups to guanine and alters its base pairing ability with cytosine.
What is nitrosoguanidine?
This is a rare but severe consequence of high-dose radiation exposure that can cause widespread genomic instability.
What is radiation induced mutagenesis?
This rare point mutation replaces a purine base (Adenine or Guanine) with a pyrimidine base (Cytosine or Thymine) or vice versa.
What is a transversion mutation?