Students are modeling how genes produce proteins by using wooden tiles with letters to represent the genes. In this model, the words that the combination of letters produce represents the proteins. In this model, which of the following best represents a mutation?

A. Combining many different words to create a complete message

B. Creating any word that is spelled exactly the same way forwards and backwards

C. Changing one or more of the letters so that they spell a different word, or no word at all

D. Making different words, with a certain number of letters, that have the same meaning