The mutation alteration to the DNA sequence would alter its meaning, that is, its ability to produce the normal amount or normal kind of protein, or normal miRNA gene; so the (organism or cell) is itself altered. Such an altered organism is called a mutant.

For example, during the eighteenth century, one orange tree in Brazil was discovered to be producing seedless oranges; as a result of a naturally-ocurring mutation in its DNA. If that particular mutation was of a single nucleotide in that orange tree's DNA (e.g., caused by ultraviolet radiation striking it), then it was a point mutation. Since all commercial seedless orange trees existing today are direct descendants of that one Brazilian tree, that mutation was a stable mutation.

MUTANT, INFORMATIONAL MOLECULES, HEREDITY, GENE, GENETIC CODE, GENETIC MAP, PROTEIN, DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (DNA), SEQUENCE (OF A DNA MOLECULE), POINT MUTATION, miRNA GENE, ORGANISM, CELL