Question

Explain how a change in a single base pair can result in a change in the shape of a protein.

Answer 1

Answer/Explanation:

A single base pair change could change a single amino acid. This amino acid could have totally different properties to the initial amino acid. For example, a change from the codon CCC to GCC would change the amino acid from proline to alanine. These two amino acids have entirely different characteristics, and could totally disrupt the structure of a particular domain of a protein. For example, proline is rigid and has a ring structure, and alanine has a non-polar side chain and rarely participates in protein function.