What type of point mutation occurs when a codon for an amino acid changes to a codon for a different amino acid?

A missense mutation occurs when a single nucleotide change in the DNA sequence results in the alteration of a codon, leading to the incorporation of a different amino acid during protein synthesis. This type of mutation results in a protein that may have altered functionality or stability, depending on the nature of the amino acid change and its position within the protein structure.

For example, if the original codon specified the amino acid glycine and the mutated codon specifies serine, the resulting protein will incorporate serine instead of glycine, potentially changing its properties. This contrasts with other types of mutations, such as silent mutations, which do not change the amino acid coded for, and nonsense mutations, which create a stop codon that halts protein translation prematurely, leading to truncated proteins. Frameshift mutations involve the insertion or deletion of nucleotides that change the reading frame of the codons, resulting in a completely different sequence of amino acids from that point onward.