Biology / Unit 6 Bio 1297 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Point Mutations: Silent
Captions available
The idea
A silent mutation changes a single DNA nucleotide without changing the protein's amino acid sequence, because codon degeneracy still specifies the same amino acid.
In practice
A mutation changing a codon's third base from GGA to GGG still specifies glycine, leaving the protein unchanged.
Where people slip
A silent mutation still changes the DNA sequence — it only fails to change which amino acid that sequence specifies.
Your place on the trail
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