Srudents are modeling how genes produce proteins by using wooden tiles with letters to represent the genes. In this model, the words that the combination of letters produce represents the proteins. If the tiles spelled out READ, a mutation would change the letters to _____ because _______.

Answer 1

If the tiles spelled out READ, a mutation might change the letters to RACE because a mutation can involve the substitution, insertion, or deletion of letters in the gene sequence. In this case, one letter (D) was replaced with a different letter (C), resulting in a new word (RACE), which represents a potentially different protein produced by the gene. Mutations like this can alter the function or properties of the resulting protein, much like how changing a single letter in a word can change its meaning.