Question

Gene mutations can be positive, negative, or neutral. Suppose that the normal gene in Model 2 produced a polypeptide that was necessary for cellular respiration.
A) Choose a mutation from those in Model 2 that might be positive for a cell. Explain your reasoning by relating the mutation to the cellular respiration process.

B) Choose a mutation from those in Model 2 that might be negative for a cell. Explain your reasoning by relating the mutation to the cellular respiration process.

Answer 1

Gene mutations can be positive, negative, or neutral. Suppose that the normal gene in Model 2 produced a polypeptide that was necessary for cellular respiration.

A) Choose a mutation from those in Model 2 that might be positive for a cell. Explain your reasoning by relating the mutation to the cellular respiration process.

Genes encoded in our DNA result in the production of proteins that perform specific functions  within human's cells and various environmental factors and spontaneous events can lead to changes in genes, these changes are called mutations, can lead to alterations in the structure and activity of the proteins in the cells use. Mutations are the source of all new alleles in nature and arise spontaneously at low frequency owing to the chemical instability of purine and pyrimidine bases and to errors during DNA replication. Therefore,a gene mutation is a change in the sequence of nucleotides that occurs during cell replication  (mitosis and meiosis) within a single coding section of DNA. Variations in alleles lead to variations in organisms  within a population, cellular respiration, i.e. the reduction of inspired oxygen to water, which powers cell function, also generates highly reactive oxygen species that can damage DNA, with the purine bases G and A being particularly susceptible to this kind of attack,so Positive mutations lead to the organism having a better chance of survival, which  means the mutation may be passed on to the offspring.

B) Choose a mutation from those in Model 2 that might be negative for a cell. Explain your reasoning by relating the mutation to the cellular respiration process.

Due to one's metabolism, the human body replaces every cell within the cellular respiration process and any mistakes can also occur in the  transcription of mRNA or the translation of a polypeptide. However, these changes are considered to be negative mutations, because they are not permanent changes to the cell, however such mutations may lead to an early death probably before the organism can produce offspring.