A central assumption about so-called synonymous mutations, which are changes in the coding sequence of proteins that do not lead to changes in its amino acid sequence, is being questioned by a study ...

Although previously thought to be neutral, research in yeast suggests that synonymous point mutations may have strongly nonneutral effects. A group of researchers from the University of Michigan (MI, ...

Since the genetic code was solved in the 1960s, synonymous mutations have been generally thought to be benign. We now show that this belief is false. Because many biological conclusions rely on the ...

Genes hold the recipe for proteins, which are made of amino acids. DNA only has four letters, or nucleotides, and each sequence of three nucleotide bases, or codon, encodes for one amino acid. There ...

New modeling shows how synonymous mutations—those that change the DNA sequence of a gene but not the sequence of the encoded protein—can still impact protein production and function. A team of ...

Genetic disorders — like cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease — are considered incurable, with gene mutations occurring in essentially every cell of the body. Gene mutations occur when one ...

DNA has to be interpreted by cells. The letters or bases that make up genetic sequences are read in sets of three, and those three-base sequences are known as codons. Every codon encodes for one amino ...

Infographic: How “Silent” Mutations Can Disrupt Protein-Making Although scientists often assume that synonymous mutations don’t cause any biological effects because they don’t alter the amino acid ...