Final answer:
Mutations such as nonsense, missense, and frame shifts due to insertions or deletions, can alter amino acid sequences, potentially leading to significant changes in protein functionality or resulting in non-functional proteins.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mutations can lead to different types of changes in the protein synthesis process. A single nucleotide change in the DNA sequence can result in a single change in an amino acid, which might alter the functionality of the protein. A nonsense mutation introduces a premature stop codon, ending protein synthesis early and usually resulting in a non-functional protein. Missense mutations change one amino acid to another and can be harmful if the new amino acid significantly alters the protein's shape or function. For example, in sickle cell disease, a missense mutation changes glutamic acid to valine in the hemoglobin gene. Lastly, insertion or deletion mutations can cause a frame shift in reading the mRNA sequence, which is particularly problematic as it alters the entire amino acid sequence downstream of the mutation, often yielding a non-functional protein.
Considering the given DNA sequence, if we transcribe ATGGCCGGTTATTAAGCA to mRNA and then translate it using a codon chart, any point mutation could significantly change the resulting protein's structure and function. For instance, if the codon that was originally for serine is changed to a stop codon due to a mutation, the protein synthesis would be terminated prematurely, creating a shorter and likely dysfunctional protein.