If a nucleotide substitution switched an A for a U, such that the codon was read as UAA instead of AAA, what would the effect be?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The codon AAA codes for the amino acid lysine, while UAA is a stop codon indicating the end of translation. Therefore, the substitution of A for U in this position would result in the premature termination of protein synthesis, leading to a non-functional or truncated protein. This is known as a nonsense mutation.

If a Nucleotide Substitution Switched an a for a U