What type of mutations can lead to large-scale chromosomal changes?

Prepare for the Penn Foster Veterinary Technician Exam. Utilize flashcards and multiple-choice questions, with detailed hints and explanations for each question. Excel in your exam preparation!

Large-scale mutations refer to significant alterations in the structure or number of chromosomes, which can include deletions, duplications, inversions, and translocations. These types of mutations can have profound effects on an organism, potentially leading to physical changes or even functional changes in the organism's traits. Large-scale mutations can involve entire regions of chromosomes or even entire chromosomes themselves, resulting in considerable disruptions in genetic material.

Point mutations, on the other hand, involve changes to a single nucleotide, which would typically result in a more subtle effect on the organism's phenotype. Insertions can refer to the addition of one or more nucleotide bases but may not always cause large-scale chromosomal changes unless they disrupt the overall chromosomal structure. Transversions are a specific type of point mutation where a purine is replaced with a pyrimidine or vice versa, again they do not typically lead to large structural changes in the chromosomes.

Therefore, the option indicating large-scale mutations encompasses these significant alterations in chromosomal architecture and aligns with the inquiry about mutations that lead to large-scale changes.

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