A bacterium was found to contain a sequence of ATCGGGATCCT in its genome. A few generations later, the sequence was found to be ATCATCCT. What type of mutation caused this change in the bacteria?

This question lacks options, the options are:

A) Deletion

B) Duplication

C) Inversion

D) Insertion

The correct answer is Insertion mutation

Explanation:

Mutation refers to changes that occur to the nucleotide sequence of a gene or DNA. Mutation produces different effect in the mutated organism and is classified based on how it occurs. Mutations can be deletion, insertion, duplication, inversion etc.

Based on the description of the mutation that occured to the bacterium sequence, it is an INSERTION MUTATION. An insertion mutation is a kind of mutation in which extra nucleotide bases are added to the original sequence. This is the case of this bacteria sequence, which was previously found to contain: ATCGGGATCCT.

After few generations, nucleotide bases "GGG" i.e three Guanine bases has been added to the sequence to give a mutated sequence: ATCATCCT.

explanation: