A DNA mutation results in a protein that is the same as the initial protein synthesized before the mutation. What statement BEST explains this outcome?

Question

One amino acid substitution does not affect protein synthesis.
Amino acids have similar functions, so their corresponding proteins are unaffected by mutations.
Different codons can be translated into the same amino acid, so some mutations do not affect protein synthesis.
Only mutations that occur at the chromosomal level change protein function.

Answer 1

The statement that BEST explains this outcome is:

Different codons can be translated into the same amino acid, so some mutations do not affect protein synthesis.

This phenomenon is known as the redundancy or degeneracy of the genetic code, where multiple codons can specify the same amino acid. Therefore, a mutation in the DNA may change a codon to another that still codes for the same amino acid, resulting in no change to the protein's structure or function.