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LuisanaT's picture

Small changes make big differences

Submitted by LuisanaT on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 5:57pm.

An alteration in something as minusucle as a nitrogen base undergoes a snowball effect and causes everything that is based on this subunit's specfic sequence to be drastically different.

But if theres a slight change in, for example part of DNA replication process, where nitrogen base T reacts and "attaches" with G, a nitrogen base that is not its complement, would the first nitrogen base still be Thymine? The only way for it to fit Glycine's specific active site is if the mutation in Thymine causes it to appear more like Cytosine. Maybe it is the Gylcine that has a mutation, allowing it to interact with Thymine's shape. Does this mean that there can be a nitrogen base that is a combination of characteristics of other nitrogen bases, allowing it to be Thymine but still interact with Glycine? Or is the mutated nitrogen base automatically renamed based on the new nitrogen base it now reacts with?

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