Summary:
- Mutations are essential for evolution to occur.
- Two major categories of mutations are germline mutations and somatic mutations.
- Mutations may change the structure of a chromosome or just change a single nucleotide.
- A point mutation can be silent, missense, or nonsense mutations.
- A frameshift mutation is a deletion or insertion of one or more nucleotides that changes the reading frame of the base sequence.
- The effects of point mutations depend on how they change the genetic code.
- The cause of albinism is a mutation in a gene for melanin.