Now, our point mutation can either take place on the non coding region of the DNA, the region that does not code for any protein, or it can take place on the gene on the coding region that codes for a protein. In either case, if our mutation if the point mutation takes place on either our non coding region or on the coding region, and if the mutation does not actually cause any significant damage, any significant change, such a point mutation is known as a silent mutation. Now, it's kind of obvious why a point mutation on a noncoding region will lead to silent mutation. That's because our non coding region doesn't actually code for any protein. We do not use our noncoding region to synthesize any type of polypeptide chain. And so when we have a point mutation taking place on our non coding region, that will lead to a silent mutation.