Question

What is mutation? Give the names of some mutagens. How mutations are significant in agriculture ?

Answer 1

In genetics, a mutagen is a physical or chemical agent that changes the genetic material, usually DNA, of an organism and thus increases the frequency of mutations above the natural background level.

Whether spontaneous or
induced, mutations generally are a result of large-scale deletions, inversions or translocations of chromosomes, or from point mutations(a type of mutation that causes a single change, insertion or deletion of the genetic material) in the DNA.

Answer 2

There are three types of DNA Mutations: base substitutions, deletions and insertions.

Base Substitutions. Single base substitutions are called point mutations, recall the point mutation Glu -----> Val which causes sickle-cell disease.

Deletions. ...

Insertions.