Mutation Analysis: Single Nucleotide Poloymorphism (SNP) Mutations are genetic alterations either in germ or non-germ (somatic) cells. Mutations can impact the formation of various diseases as well as affect the response of a patient to particular drug treatments. The mutation can be an insertion, deletion, missense or nonsense mutation in the coding or non-coding regions. In some cases, a mutation occurs at the intron-exon boundary and affects the normal splicing of the transcript.