6 Top-Rated Difference Between Point and Frameshift Mutations with Table

What is the difference between point and frameshift mutations?

Gene mutations occur due to DNA replication and mutagen error. Point and Frameshift mutations are two main types of gene mutations. These mutations occur in the nucleotide sequence in a gene.

The main difference between point and frameshift mutations is that the former refers to an alteration of a single nucleotide in a gene while the latter refers to the changes that occur within one or more nucleotides.

Point mutation is more of nucleotide substitution which results in silent, missense, or nonsense mutations while frameshift mutation is caused by insertion or deletion of nucleotides.

difference between point and frameshift mutations

Comparison Table (Point Vs Frameshift Mutations)

Basic Terms	Point Mutation	Frameshift Mutation
Meaning	It is an alteration of a single nucleotide in a gene	It alters the open reading frame of a gene
Number Base Pairs	Entails single nucleotide alterations	Involve one or more nucleotide alterations
Type of Mutation	Substitution	Deletion or insertion of a nucleotide
Influence	Silent, Missense, Nonsense	Causes alteration of open reading frame of a protein
Importance	Alter the structure of a gene	Alter the number of nucleotides in a gene
Diseases	Sickle-cell Anemia	Tay-Sachs

What Is a Point Mutation?

It is an alteration of a single nucleotide in a gene. The type of gene mutation arises from substitution, transition, and transversion.

The gene mutation rarely happens. But it is caused by an error during DNA replication and mutagens. DNA consists of Purines and Pyrimidines in the nucleotide.

Point mutation is further subdivided into translation and transversion. Translation occurs when a purine pair is substituted with another purines or pyrimidines.

Transversion occurs when a purine pair is substituted with another pyrimidine or vice versa. The changes result in some mutation effects. Examples of the types of point mutation include:

Silent Mutation

It is a gene mutation that happens due to degeneracy of the genetic code. The alteration of the codon does not bring any change to the amino acid produced.

Research shows that no phenotypic change will be experienced despite the alteration of the genotype of an organism.

Missense Mutation

An altered codon results in the formation of different amino acids. But the chemical properties of a substituted amino acid will be similar to that of the original amino acid.

The alteration will result in phenotypic changes. But if the altered amino acid has different properties, the mutated proteins will either be lethal or non-functional.

Nonsense Mutations

The alteration in the nucleotide of a specific codon will result in a stop codon to the gene. This stops the translation of proteins at halfway.

The translated protein becomes non-functional and short in length. The cellular-mechanisms later cut-off the non-functional proteins.

What Is a Frameshift Mutation?

It is a gene mutation that alters the open reading frame of a gene. It occurs in form of insertion of a base and deletion of a base.

Insertion of one or more base pairs into nucleotide sequence tends to shift the gene downstream base to the right. Deletion of the base shifts the downstream bases to the left.

The DNA will be coded to result in a stop codon in case the frameshift occurs due to mutation. It will save on cellular energy which may be wasted to produce non-functional proteins.

Main Difference between Point and Frameshift Mutations

Point mutation happens when there is a replacement of one base pair from another whereas frameshift happens when there is an insertion or deletion of base pair from a DNA structure.
Point mutation occur due to alterations in the single nucleotide while frameshift mutation occurs due to alterations in the numerous nucleotides
Point mutation brings changes in the structure of a DNA due to the substitution of another base pair while frameshift mutation brings a change in the number of nucleotides due to either insertion or deletion.
Types of point mutations are transition and transverse while those of frameshift is insertion and deletions.
Point mutation causes sickle cell anemia while frameshift causes Tay-Sachs disease.

Similarities between Point and Frameshift Mutations

Both are two types of gene mutation
Both are involved in the production of non-functional proteins
Both causes replication of altered genes

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In Conclusion

The mutation affects the DNA sequence and this results in changes that are either lethal or negligible. These changes allow the body to fight against diseases and adapt to different environmental changes.

The core difference between frameshift and point mutations is their effect on their production of a functional protein.

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