Questions tagged [mutations]
A change in an organism's genomic sequence.
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Is there an example in evolution where a huge jump in evolution happened due to a dramatic mutation?
Here is a chicken that due to a mutation got 4 legs:
I wonder, are there examples, where such one-time dramatic mutational chages gave rise to a new species?
Are there species that appeared not due ...
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What is the nature of seedless fruits?
Can seedless fruit be produced in nature without humans interfering with the fruit? And would that be considered a spontaneous mutation?
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How did birds reduce their tail and fuse the last caudual vertebrae into a pygostyle?
I was just looking at the phylogeny of Avialae and saw that birds go from having long tails made up of many caudal vertebrae (ex: Archaeopteryx, Jixiangornis, Jeholornis) to ones with very few ...
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Sports of western sword fern: descriptions or resources?
I found a western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) growing in a home garden that appears to be showing a sport. Notably, the sportive fronds come off the same rootstock as more normal-appearing fronds ...
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Mutation profiles for Corona viruses in non-human hosts
In this question Mutation rate breakdown by original and mutated nucleotide for Coronaviridae mutation profiles for SARS-CoV-2 in humans are given. It is a known fact that mutation profiles are ...
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Is deleting two or three consecutive nucleotides and inserting exactly two or three back more common than two or three consecutive SNP?
I am looking at cancer mutations. I found that some of the mutations are e.g.
c.1251_1252delGGinsTT
c.151_152delGGinsTC
c.351_352delCAinsTT
I wonder if these are indeed two consecutive single ...
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Can gene mutations cause Down's syndrome in humans?
I am working on an A levels questions:
Which of the following statements about gene mutation is incorrect?
A. It can occur in both somatic and sex cells
B. It can cause Down's syndrome in humans
C. ...
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Are gene conversions and expansion/contraction of repetitive (satellite) DNA examples of directional, non-random mutations?
Are gene conversions and expansion/contraction of repetitive (satellite) DNA examples of directional, non-random mutations? For some context, it was brought to mind as a result of reading the ...
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Cancer: computing the proliferation of DNA mutations in cancer cells
I have a question about cancer. How is it, that in a cancerogenous cell, once a specific gene changes, subsequent DNAs in cells end up exponentially acquiring more and more mutations?
Can, these ...
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How exactly do mutations cause genetic variation in bilaterians?
I am trying to understand how mutations cause genetic variance, and I'm stuck on one issue that I'm going to try my best to explain.
(I am specifically talking about mutations that cause a ...
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Primer design for site-directed mutagenesis
In our practical course about modern cloning methods, we performed point mutations on a promotor via site-directed mutagenesis.
As far as I understand that method you need forward and reverse primers ...
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Chromosome Mosaicism
I have some questions regarding Chromosome Mosaicism.
Let's say you have an individual with trisomy 21 (down syndrome). But somehow, not all of the cells that make up this individual contain the ...
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Why are precultures done in Luria-Delbruck fluctuation assays?
I looked at a variety of descriptions of the classic Luria-Delbruck fluctuation assay protocol for determining mutation rates in different organisms (e.g. 1, 2, 3) and noticed that they all start from ...
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Expected variant allele frequency of mutation present on 2 out of 3 copies of a 70% purity cancer sample
I am reading Nik-Zainal et al., 2012.
In such paper, (for sample PD4120a - a 188-fold depth ER+ breast cancer tumor), it is stated that:
The sample has 70% tumor purity.
The genome has one triploid ...
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Single flowers and double flowers on the same plant?
A friend of mine found a strange plant of begonia that at first had regular flowers. After a while it started producing double flowers and has now a mixed inflorescence:
The double flowers look like ...
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Calculating bacterial mutation rate
I'm reading Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts et. al and at one point, the authors mention:
One finds that a single gene that encodes an average-sized protein (~$10^3$ coding nulceotide pairs) ...
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Amino Acid mutation profile for human coronavirus: Why is the mutation from T to I so frequent?
Still watching the emerging lineages of SARS-CoV2 I noticed that the amino acid mutation from threonine to isoleucine seems to be particularly frequent. Counting mutations in a lineage with a lot of ...
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Do the quantum mechanical properties of the particles that make up DNA affect mutations in the genome?
Do quantum mechanical properties of particles, such as uncertainty, probability, tunneling, and so on, affect mutations in the genome?
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Are introns conserved among cells?
To elaborate on the title: Among somatic, post-mitotic cells, would the same intron on a given chromosome have the same sequence among all cells descended from a progenitor cell?
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Colonizing Mars: Is research being done to find the most radiation-tolerant plant species?
Due to Elon Musk's stated objectives to colonize and live on Mars in his lifetime, is there research occurring to determine what plants would be the most hardy to survive in the extreme environmental ...
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Why is the genetic code so heavily conserved?
Except some organisms, most organisms follow the same Genetic Code
tRNAs, tRNA synthetases, ribosomes, etc. comprise the translational machinery for converting nucleotide codons to proteins.
My ...
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Number of "mutations" in Omicron variant
Currently in the media they say that the Omicron variant has more than 30 "mutations", ie changes in spikes. I find this confusing, because the way I understand a single change in the virus ...
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Do mutations in a fundamental structure of a virus [Omicron Variant] make it more transmissible?
I am not a microbiologist, nor a virologist so I had a question - in the new Omicron virus variant, a large number of mutations were reported for the protein spike.
From my naïve understanding, the ...
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Can the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus mutate in people who have been fully vaccinated?
I am curious to know if the original SARS‑CoV‑2 virus, or any of its variants, can mutate in people who have been fully vaccinated. I am referring to those people who have received all the recommended ...
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Why does mitochondrial DNA have a high mutation rate, even though the mitochondrial function is highly conserved?
My understanding is that genes that are functionally important are more highly conserved. The DNA coding for ribosomal RNA is one example of that. I was surprised to find out that mitochondrial DNA ...
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What is an example of a benign or beneficial de novo copy number variation?
Duplication events in particular. In any species. Have enough genomes been sequenced and studied to identify any? It is rather easy to find studies which identify them with diseases but have they ever ...
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New ORFs occurring in SARS-CoV-2 due to mutations
Are there examples of new ORFs in SARS-CoV-2 created by mutations?
The ORFs should not be present in the reference virus, but they should occur in a lineage occurring in the wild (at best, being part ...
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What is the mathematical relationship between selection coefficient and dN/dS
dN/dS is often used as a measure of the intensity of selective pressure on a mutation or gene, but I'm curious about how it can be written as a function of the selection coefficient. I'm specifically ...
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Extensions of proteins in SARS-CoV-2 variants
What lineages of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 occurring in the wild show some extensions, i.e., mutations of the stop codons to codons encoding amino acids (mutations to another stop codon don't count ...
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Do the genes for external viral epitopes mutate faster than for viral machinery (e.g. Proteases)?
To fight SARS-COV-2 we use vaccines which train our immune system against viral epitopes like the external S(pike) protein. Since these structures change a lot, would it not have been a better idea to ...
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Coronavirus lineages with amino acid insertions
Is there an overview over SARS-CoV-2 lineages that have some insertions in their genomes? Tools based on GISAID sequences do not show them.
I am aware of a few lineages with insertions
Mu with S:...
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Mutations in a Petri dish overnight
How long does it take for a bacterial culture in a Petri dish to experience all possible single base pair mutations? Can 12 hours be enough?
I want to get an intuition for whether a given mutation is ...
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Monogenic disorders vs multifactorial inheritance disorders
There's a condition called SYNGAP1-related intellectual disability which is caused by mutations to the SYNGAP1 gene.
I believe that this is called a monogenic disorder, while disorders that are caused ...
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Do mutations that cause the loss of a complex trait occur more often than mutations causing gain of a complex traits?
The Wiki entry on the evolution of biological complexity states that "[m]utations causing loss of a complex trait occur more often than mutations causing gain of a complex trait". There is ...
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How are random mutations in cells of an organism controlled?
Even in the most stable conditions cells undergo mutations. So in humans(an example) with millions of cells, mutations must be a common affair. But how is that we are still basically the same ...
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Do mutations occur while growing virus for preparing inactivated viral vaccine?
The development of mutations in virus is reported to happen during replication, especially for an mRNA type virus like SARS-COV-2
Viruses that encode their genome in RNA, such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV and
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How to calculate the probability that a mutation occurred?
According to the internet, there is a 7% chance that two brown-eyed parents will have a green-eyed child. However, Dominance says that it is impossible for this to happen. Is the internet correct? If ...
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Are the kind of mutations different in an antibiotic setting than they are in a non antibiotic setting?
Hy everyone!
I'm looking for experiments that deal with the kind of mutations that arise in antibiotic environment, as opposed to non antibiotic environment. As far as I understand, AB (anti biotic) ...
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Are SNPs or SSR copy number variation mutations more prominent?
I'm trying to get a sense of the dominant way that mutations occur. I have seen various numbers which seem at least at first glance to conflict, and I was curious if anyone had clarification on this.
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Saturated Mutagenesis Screening
I am hoping to mutate the active site of the enzyme I am researching that has 5 residues in proximity with the substrate. I am wondering how many colonies I'll have to assess to theoretically sample ...
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How difficult is it to adapt an existing vaccine to a virus variant?
There is (at least in France) an ongoing discussion about the Astra-Zeneca vaccine which is perceived as "outdated" because of the prevalence of new variants (the vaccine was designed based ...
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DNA mutations in humans are generally bad, but why to they make viruses stronger?
When I read about DNA mutations in humans, the mutations are generally bad.
When I read about mutations in viruses such as the recent emerging strains of COVID-19, however, it seems to be good for the ...
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Mutation rate breakdown by original and mutated nucleotide for Coronaviridae
In a discussion of the mutations S:Q677H and S:Q677P in SARS-CoV-2 it was mentioned that the mutations leading to this result are "against the tendency" of preferred mutations on the ...
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Why are adenoviral vector vaccines safe in terms of insertion mutagenesis due to genome integration and E4 region's proteins effects?
Disclaimer: I'm neither a genetics professional nor an anti-vax fanatic, I just tried to compare COVID-19 vaccine types currently available on the market and got some questions that I'd like to answer ...
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Does a critical mass of infected individuals exist after which mutations will overtake vaccination attempts?
As we know, all organisms have a probability to undergo mutations when they replicate. For every infected individual with the Covid-19 their bodies are environments in which the SARS-CoV-2 may mutate ...
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Is there an example of a new species through mutation breeding? [duplicate]
Is there a demonstrable species that went through mutation breeding and through successive generations it drifted so far away from its initial parent species that it can't breed with them anymore? (I ...
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Is it plausible that strict lockdowns made it more likely for the new variant of COVID to have emerged?
My idea is that strict lockdowns put greater evolutionary pressure on the coronavirus by restricting oppurtunities to be transmitted, meaning that a faster-spreading variant had much less competition.
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What is the probability of virus undergoing a specific dangerous mutation? [closed]
Non-biologist here so apologies if the question is violating too many of the community standards for asking a question in the forum.
What got me thinking was imagining how much more terrifying the ...
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What is the difference between mutation per base pair and mutation per genome? [closed]
Isn't genome size considered to be the number of base pairs present in DNA? So what is the difference between the mutation per base pair and mutation per genome? Are they similar or different?
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Coronavirus mutation: bad luck or a consequence of vaccination?
I would like to know whether a mutation within a virus (such as the new coronavirus mutation that appeared in England source) is a consequence of the vaccination program - maybe because it is ...
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