Question

Which of the following may render a silent mutation in an mRNA relevant? A) micro RNA B) SiRNA C) tRNA D) Pyrosequencing E) Random Mating

Answer 1

Silent mutation in tRNA is highly relevant: We know that there are different or specific tRNA molecule for each codon due to this codon usage bias may be affected due to which tRNA may not operate effectively. For example, specific tRNA molecule for the codon UCU and another specific for the codon UCC, both of which code for the amino acid serine. In this instance, if there was a thousand times less UCC tRNA than UCU tRNA, then the incorporation of serine into a polypeptide chain would happen a thousand times more slowly when a mutation causes the codon to change from UCU to UCC. If amino acid transport to the ribosome is delayed, translation will be carried out at a much slower rate. This can result in lower expression of a particular gene containing that silent mutation if the mutation occurs within an exon. Additionally, if the ribosome has to wait too long to receive the amino acid, the ribosome could terminate translation prematurely