Sage-Tips

What affects the rate of mutation?

Both the nature of the gene and its environment can influence the mutation rate. The size of the gene, its base composition, its position in the genome, and whether or not it is being actively transcribed influence its mutation rate.

How do heavy metals cause mutations?

Although the precise mechanism of carcinogenesis is undefined, heavy metal exposure can contribute to genetic damage by inducing double strand breaks (DSBs) as well as inhibiting critical proteins from different DNA repair pathways.

What substances increase mutation rate?

The rate of mutation can be increased by environmental factors such as UV radiation , X-rays, gamma rays and certain types of chemicals such as bromine.

What has the highest mutation rate?

The highest per base pair per generation mutation rates are found in viruses, which can have either RNA or DNA genomes. DNA viruses have mutation rates between 10−6 to 10−8 mutations per base per generation, and RNA viruses have mutation rates between 10−3 to 10−5 per base per generation.

Can heavy metal cause gene mutation?

There are some reports showed that heavy metals might inhibit plants growth, prevent the uptake of nutrients and affect the metabolic process of the plants23. Apart from that, heavy metals might cause tumor and mutation to living organisms when they intake the heavy metals24.

How do heavy metals affect animals?

Heavy metal primarily affects the liver, kidney, brain and other body systems. They enter into an animal body either through inhalation; ingestion or absorption (direct contacts) and they develop the carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, embryotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and renal toxicity.

What is the effect of mutations on an organism’s?

Mutations can affect an organism by changing its physical characteristics (or phenotype) or it can impact the way DNA codes the genetic information (genotype). When mutations occur they can cause termination (death) of an organism or they can be partially lethal.

Which type of mutation has the greatest impact and why?

Indels can have a wide variety of lengths. At the short end of the spectrum, indels of one or two base pairs within coding sequences have the greatest effect, because they will inevitably cause a frameshift (only the addition of one or more three-base-pair codons will keep a protein approximately intact).

Which environmental factors can increase the rate of mutations in organisms?

Environmental exposures such as tobacco smoke, UV light, and aristolochic acid can result in increased mutation rates in cancer genomes. Mutation rates across individuals are also impacted by variability in the activity of certain cellular processes.

What are two environmental factors that increase the mutation rate in an organism?

Mutations can also occur as the result of exposure to environmental factors such as smoking, sunlight and radiation. Often cells can recognize any potentially mutation-causing damage and repair it before it becomes a fixed mutation. Mutations contribute to genetic variation within species.