Amongst silent, nonsense and missense genetic mutations, is the latter the only one that leads to the creation of new alleles?
If we define alleles as a specific form of a gene, and a gene as a heritable factor consisting of a length of DNA that influences a certain characteristic, since the missense mutation is the only one that leads to the physical creation of a new protein, is it not the only one that would lead to the creation of new alleles?
Or would nonsense also lead to new alleles as the lack of the protein may lead to the expression of a different characteristic?