GENE MUTATION ACTIVITY

Grade 12 Biology University

PREP NOTES:
Move desks so there is room for all students to line up as a single
chain- make sure they can see the smart board
Smart board prepared with powerpoint presentation
Cue cards that represent a single nucleotide sequence.
Amino acid chart provided on the powerpoint.

1) Introduction to Mutation
-Greet the class. Introduce the activity as an informal assessment
regarding the types of gene mutations that the students have learned
regarding DNA synthesis and Translation & Transcription. Make a clear
distinction that for this activity, we are focusing on GENE mutations,
NOT chromosome mutations, which affect the entire structure of the
chromosome.

2) 5 minutes- In your table groups discuss the following questions

(present on powerpoint as a review)
1) What is a gene mutation? Change in the nucleotide sequence
of a gene.
2) What is a codon? A sequence of 3 nucleotides that
together form a unit of genetic code
in a DNA or RNA molecule.
3) What are two types of Insertion & Deletion.
frameshift mutations?
4) Which gene mutation leads to Missense mutation
a different amino acid being
placed in the protein
sequence?
5) What is the amino acid Alanine, threonine, stop codon
sequence of the following?
GCU ACG UAG

3) Have students transcribe the following amino acid sequence for extra
practice:

Methionine- Tryptophan- Asparagine- Arginine- Cysteine (STOP)

AUG UGG AAC CGC UGC UGA

4) Split the class into 6 amino acid groups- METHIONINE group,

TRYPTOPHAN group, ASPARAGINE group, ARGININE group, CYSTEINE
group and STOP CODON group. Each group will have to answer the
 powerpoint questions correctly in order to advance to the next round.
Have each group stand in the order of the amino acid sequence
presented above.
5) Winner takes all question last question present on powerpoint slide.
The first group to answer the question correctly wins a prize!