Question

What is the difference between the revertible and nonrevertible rII mutants that Benzer generated?

What is the difference between the revertible and nonrevertible rII mutants that Benzer generated?

Revertible mutants were caused by partial deletions and nonrevertible mutants were caused by translocations.

Revertible mutants were caused by point mutations and nonrevertible mutants were caused by partial deletion mutations.

Revertible mutants were caused by transitions and nonrevertible mutants were caused by transversions.

Revertible mutants were caused by insertions and nonrevertible mutants were caused by point mutations.

Answer 1

Second option is the right answer. Seymour Benzer saw that the revertible mutations were caused by point mutations and non revertible mutations were caused by partial or complete deletion. This was observed in the rII mutants of the T4 bacteriophage that Seymour Benzer generated. Point mutation is a mutation in which only a single base pair or single nucleotide is changed whereas the deletion mutation is in which the base pair or nucleotide is left out during the DNA replication.

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