Which type of mutation could affect the cell type in which a protein is synthesized?

Question

Which type of mutation could affect the cell type in which a protein is synthesized?


A mutation in the coding region of the gene


A mutation in the TATA box of the gene


A mutation in the promoter of the gene


A mutation in the enhancer for a gene

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, there's one mutation in this list that could potentially end up affecting the resulting protein sequence. Because the promoter of the gene is not transcribed, nor is the TATA box (which is usually upstream of the promoter) mutations in these regions will most likely end up affecting transcription initiation or transcript expression, but not the actual protein that's synthesized. Similarly, enhancers are non-coding regions, so although they may be transcribed, they don't actually have the sequences that code for eventual protein amino acids. Therefore, the best answer is a mutation in the coding region of the gene. Mutations in coding regions of genes (like in exons) can lead to changes in amino acids or truncation of the peptide in translation, meaning that the resulting protein will be different from normal.