I'm a software developer, so I have little knowledge and don't really know where to start. I have a simple question though that's pertinent to some of my work:

genes mutate throughout ones life. My question is, when does the bulk of mutation happen which would effect the offspring of an individual? Does most of it happen at conception and early adolescence, or does a significant amount happen between adolescence and parenthood?

If anyone's curious, I'm implementing something called a [Genetic Algorithm][1], and I would like some input on when exactly to do mutation.


  [1]: https://towardsdatascience.com/introduction-to-genetic-algorithms-including-example-code-e396e98d8bf3#:~:text=A%20genetic%20algorithm%20is%20a,offspring%20of%20the%20next%20generation.