Why do silent mutations occur

Reprints and Permissions. Pearson, H. Silent mutations speak up. Nature Download citation. Published : 21 December Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative.

Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. Download PDF. Overlooked genetic changes could impact on disease. You have full access to this article via your institution. Rare 3-letter combinations of DNA are slower to translate.

Credit: Getty. References 1 Kimchi-Sarfaty C. However, if a mutation in the promoter sequence of a gene occurs, the effect may be apparent since the expression of the gene may cause changes in the amino acid sequence, as well as the structure and function of the protein product.

Point mutations may be classified based on functionality: 1 nonsense mutation , 2 missense mutation , and 3 silent mutation. A silent mutation is a form of mutation that does not cause a significant change in the amino acid. As a result, the protein is still functional. Because of this, the changes are regarded as though they are evolutionarily neutral.

Silent mutations occur in non-coding regions or within exons as opposed to the closely similar type of mutation called synonymous mutations that particularly occur within exons.

This tutorial looks at the mutation at the gene level and the harm it may bring. Learn about single nucleotide polymorphisms, temperature-sensitive mutations, indels, trinucleotide repeat expansions, and gene duplication