What do you understand by the term mutation?

The correct answer is Permanent, heritable alterations in the base sequence of the DNA. A mutation refers to changes or alterations of the base-pair sequence in genetic material. These alterations are permanent and cannot be corrected. Mutation can be inherited or acquired as a result of environmental factors such as smoking and sunlight.

There are three types of mutations – silent, missense, and nonsense mutation. If the amino acid produced is different from the initial amino acid at the site of the change, a nonsense mutation or missense mutation has occurred. This will affect the function and structure of the protein produced. This mutation also causes premature signals to stop making protein resulting in a shortened protein that will not function properly.