Think of a cell as a car. A car is made up of many parts, just as a cell is made up of many proteins. If one headlight burns out, you can still drive the car, although driving at night may be tough. And if you're driving in traffic when this happens, then your car troubles are certain to affect the cars around you, making problems for the whole street. Proteins in cells work the same way.
Some proteins are more important to a cell's normal function than others.
A cell might still be able to function properly if the mutated protein isn't that important, like the headlight on your car. We hope to resolve this problem shortly. The following page may take up to 3 minutes to load because it contains a nifty interactive activity. Please be patient.