DNA are nucleic acids that are made up of long units of called nucleotides. A nucleotide consists of three parts, a nitrogenous base, a sugar, and a phosphate group. Each nucleotide is represented by an A, T, G, or C to stand for the type of nitrogenous base that particular nucleotide contains. The nitrogenous bases that are contained in DNA are adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. The sugar group that is attached to the sugar-phosphate …showed first 75 words of 1280 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1280 total…Each nucleotide may be bumped one up or one down on the chain depending upon the mutation. The result would probably be a nonfunctioning polypeptide. Base substitution, however, may or may not cause a change in the amino acid sequence, depending on if the nucleotides code for the same amino acid. An example of base substitution that would be non-damaging would be GAA to GAG, because they both code for the same amino acid (Glu).