To con­tinue with the com­parison of ap­ples and pears from the first part, here is an ex­ample of a syno­ny­mous mu­ta­tion that can rightly be de­scribed as a si­lent mu­tation...

by Christoph — We are oc­ca­sion­al­ly warned not to com­pare ap­ples with pears (sor­ry, Eng­lish speak­ers, not with or­anges this time). Sure, both are pome fruits, and both plants be­long to the Rosa­ceae fa­mily, but they dif­fer no­tab­ly in shape, feel, smell and taste. Ge­neti­cists may well need a si­mi­lar warn­ing when they some­times use the terms si­lent mu­ta­tion and syn­ony­mous sub­sti­tu­tion in­ter­change­ab­ly.