Unit 1 mutation - Admission/Application Essay Example

Running head: Mutation Mutation refers to changes in a genomic sequence. This genomic sequence may refer to the DNA sequence of a cell or the RNA sequence of a virus. Mutation in gene DNA changes the amino acids sequence of a protein encoded by the gene. For this case, the DNA sequence is interpreted in groups of three nucleotide bases called codons, and each codon specify a single amino acid (Gerstein, 2002). So what causes mutation?Mutation can happen spontaneously through molecular decay, or it can be induced by the use of mutagens (Sage, 2005).

According to Gerstein (2002), spontaneous mutations on the molecular level can be caused by Tautomerism, depurination, deamination and stripped strand mis-paring. On the molecular level, induced mutations can be caused by chemicals such as hydroxylamine, base analog and alkylating. Sage (2005) held that there are other causes of induced mutation like; agents that form DNA, DNA intercalating, DNA crosslinkers and oxidative damage.Secondly, mutation can be caused by radiation whereby ultra violent radiations play a key part.

The two most vulnerable nucleotide bases to radiation are cytosine and thymine (Sage, 2005). This is because the ultra violent light can induce adjacent pyrimidine bases in a DNA strand (Sage, 2005). This makes it to be covalently joined as a pyrimidine dimmer. In conclusion, mutation as a change in genomic sequence has got two causes, which are spontaneous and induced. Scientific research has proved these facts through the scientific method, which include gathering of empirical information regarding DA behavior, and by use of specific principles of reasoning to prove these facts.

References Gerstein, P. M. (2002). "Studying genomes through the aeons: protein families, pseudogenes and proteome evolution". J Mol Biol, 318 (5), 1155–1174. Sage, E. (2005). UVA Radiation is Highly Mutagenic in Cells that are Unable to Repair 7, 8 dihydro-8-oxoguanine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102 (38), 13538–13543.