DNA Mutations

1) What are the definitions of the following with respect to DNA mutations
a. Point mutation
b. Insertion
c. Deletion
d. Inversion
e. Duplication
f. Reversion
g. Transition
h. Transversion

2) What are the definitions of the following DNA mutations with respect to the protein produced?
a. Missense mutation
b. Nonsense mutation
c. Silent mutation
d. Frame shift mutation

3) Using the codon table below answer the following questions:
You have the following wild type coding gene sequence:

In numbers below represent the base number of the sequence.
mutation Gene sequence Protein sequence Type of mutation Type of protein mutation
Wild type (wt) ATG AAG CTA ATA TCG TAA GGG wt wt
A4T (A at position 4 is a T)
C inserted at position 4
A9T
Delete bases 4-6
C14T

4) What is the difference between a spontaneous mutation and a mutation generated by a mutagen?

5) What are the ways that DNA bases can become damages during normal cell processes?

6) For each of the following DNA repair mechanisms, explain what is repaired, and how the repair mechanism works:
Repair replication errors:
Repair UV damage:
Replace damaged nitrogenous bases:
Repair DS DNA breaks (2 different ways)

7) What is SOS repair and why is it induced? What is the advantage and disadvantage of this pathway?

8) A suspected chemical mutagens (compound X and compound Y) are screened by the Ames test. Which should be considered mutagens? Explain your conclusion.

Note: These are Petri plates and the yellow dots represent colonies.

9) What are 5 methods that bacteria use to transfer DNA BETWEEN cells? Briefly explain each.

10) What are transposons? What are the basic elements that make up a transposon?

11) Define:
a. Homolog
b. Paralog
c. Ortholog

12) What are genomic islands, and how can they be identified?