3 : Agarose Gel Electrophoresis & Ames Test

Wednesday, 11 November 2020 4:04 PM

ILO's
Part 1
Describe steps involved in agarose gel electrophoresis
Define haplotype & determine haplotype based on gel
How haplotypes can be used to investigate human origins

Part 2
Describe the different types of mutation
Explain how Ames test is used to identify mutagens & type

1. Types of Mutation
- Genetic variation has no phenotypic effect
• Silent : mutation does not alter polypeptide chain , a single base pair substitutio
position of the carbon. (More than 1 codon that codes for more than 1 amino ac
• Nonsense : mutation that ends up in a stop codon. When a stop codon appears
degraded
• Missense : Point mutation that results in a different amino acid at a single positi
mutation.x
 3. Ames Test

• Utilise bacteria to test whether a chemical can cause m

on at the third • Asses mutagenic potential of chemical compounds
cid) ○ +ve : chemical is mutagenic & act as carcinogen =
early , it gets • Quick and east estimate of carcinogenic potential of a c
○ Standard carcinogenic assays on mice are time co
ion. E.g : sickle cell expensive)
• Function : test water extract from plumbing products in
reversion system.

Based on principle of reverse mutation , aka baterial reverse

Test organism : Ames uses several strains of bacteria that car

Auxotrophic mutant : loss the ability to synthesize histidine (H
His - contains chemical causes mutation in histidine encoding
histidine (His+) this is revers mutations, chemical repsonsible
Ames test is used to test mutagenic ability of varieties of chem
When mutations occur :
• Intergenic region : no phenotypic effect - silent (Kimura's theory)
• Non-coding region (intron, promoter, UTR) : may be silent / may affect gene exp
• Protein coding region : various effect
 His - contains chemical causes mutation in histidine encoding
histidine (His+) this is revers mutations, chemical repsonsible
Ames test is used to test mutagenic ability of varieties of chem

pression