What is mutation? what causes a mutation?

In biology, a mutation is the permanent alteration of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or other genetic elements.

What causes a mutation?

Acquired (or somatic) mutations occur at some time during a person's life and are present only in certain cells, not in every cell in the body. These changes can be caused by environmental factors such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun, or can occur if an error is made as DNA copies itself during cell division.

image result for describe the various types of gene mutationsghr.nlm.nih.gov

the types of mutations include: missense mutation: this type of mutation is a change in one dna base pair that results in the substitution of one amino acid for another in the protein made by a gene. nonsense mutation: a nonsense mutation is also a change in one dna base pair.

explanation: