What is the difference between mutation and snp

SNPs have a wide variety of applications in genetics. On the other hand, a mutation is a small to large scale change in the structure or the quantity of genome. It occurs rarely and some mutations are beneficial and lead to evolution.

But, some mutations are harmful and can cause diseases. Therefore, the main difference between SNP and mutation is their frequency and influence. Karki, Roshan et al. Figure 1: SNPs. Figure 2: Mutations. View all posts. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Large-scale mutations occur due to deletions of larger areas, reproduction of number variations, deletion of genes, loss of gene copies, and movement of larger sections of DNA from the original position, etc.

Mutations will result in the alteration of the gene structure that expresses wrong proteins. Sometimes mutations result in positive characteristics and good proteins.

Mutations are important for evolution. Otherwise, the population might not be able to adapt to the changing and challenging environments. Therefore, mutations are considered as the driving force behind evolution. However, most mutations are neutral. These are the changes caused due to mistakes of DNA replication or the influence of the different environmental factors.

Mutations happen via insertions, deletions, inversions, duplications and rearrangements of nucleotides. Gene mutations cause structural and functional changes in the genes, resulting in significant differences in the next generations. However, inherited diseases are rarely caused by mutations since inherited disease are often recessive.

In SNPs, only one nucleotide difference can be observed at a particular location of the sequence. SNP is also a kind of a mutation known as point mutation as it changes DNA by changing one nucleotide from the considering sequence. Reference: 1. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. There's a lot of baggage that goes along with the word "mutation", so even when we talk about patients we usually prefer "deleterious variant" or something like that.

So somatic mutations are mutations, or de novo mutations where the child had a variant but the parent doesn't are mutations. But if it's germline, I always call it a variant. The other advantage of saying "variant" over "SNP" is that "variant" can be used to describe insertions and deletions larger than one base. Show 1 more comment. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Other chapters in Help Me Understand Genetics. Genetics Home Reference has merged with MedlinePlus.

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