Question

What would happen to the rate of TRANSCRIPTION if there was a frame shift mutation in the transcription unit? Explain your reasoning?

Answer 1

Transcription is a initial step of gene expression where the DNA sequence is copied into a complimentary and antiparallel RNA strand (mRNA). While Frame-shift mutation is a genetic mutation where in it causes insertions and deletions (indels) of nucleotides in the DNA sequence. The sequence is no longer divisible by three, which ultimately leads to change in the reading frame as the codons specified for a amino acid are triplet in nature. Addition or deletion of a single base pair will lead to alteration of the end protein product. The mRNA's containing the genetic sequence in the form of nucleotides is now altered due to indels by frame shift mutation. This mutation will also alter the stop codon ("UAA", "UGA" or "UAG") which may affect lead to pre-mature termination of the transcription process or inhibition of the process.