mutation
any inherited alteration of genetic material
Mutagens increase frequency of mutations.
examples include: radiation and chemicals such as nitrogen mustard, vinyl chloride, alkylating agent, formaldehyde, and sodium nitrate
base pair substitution
when one base pair replaces another, this replaces can result in a change in the amino acid sequence
silent mutation
mutations that do not change the amino acid sequence and thus have no consequence
missense mutations
produce change in a single amino acid
nonsense mutations
produce one of the three stop codons (UAA, UAG, UGA) in the messenger RNA (mRNA)