Answer to Question #166250 in Molecular Biology for Jasmine Elfaqir

Question

Chemical elements of tobacco smoke can change the nucleotide sequence in a DNA molecule by replacing adenine with thymine or guanine with cytosine. Which kind of mutation is this one? Draw and explain the mechanisms and consequences of such a change

Answer 1

A substitution Mutation occurs when one nucleotide base is replaced by another.

Tobacco smoke produce a distinct set, or “signature” of mutations because of their specific mechanism of action in disrupting DNA.

Reactive oxygen molecules with free radicals, which are a byproduct of cellular metabolism, can also be very harmful to DNA. These reactants can lead to both single-stranded DNA breaks and double-stranded DNA breaks. Third, bonds in DNA eventually degrade, which creates another problem to keep the integrity of DNA to a high standard