An insertion mutation occurs, leaving 19 nucleotides in a DNA sequence.
What is the largest number of amino acids that could be produced by this sequence?
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
(Choice A) 6
A
6
(Choice B) 19
B
19
(Choice C) 7
C
7
(Choice D) 5
D
5
The largest number of amino acids that could be produced by this sequence would be 6.
This is because there are 3 nucleotides per codon (sequence of nucleotides that codes for an amino acid) and each codon codes for one amino acid. Therefore, the number of amino acids produced is equal to the number of codons.
Since there are 19 nucleotides, there would be a total of 6 codons (3 nucleotides per codon), which would produce 6 amino acids.
Therefore, the correct answer is (Choice A) 6.
To determine the largest number of amino acids that could be produced by a DNA sequence with a 19-nucleotide insertion mutation, we need to consider that each amino acid is coded for by a sequence of three nucleotides called a codon.
Since the insertion mutation adds 19 nucleotides, this will result in a frameshift mutation, where the reading frame of the codons is shifted. It means that all the codons downstream of the mutation will be affected.
In this case, since each codon is three nucleotides long, the frameshift mutation will disrupt the reading frame for every subsequent codon, and the entire protein sequence produced from this mutated DNA sequence will be completely different from the original sequence.
Therefore, the correct answer is:
(Choice D) 5