Blog Post Module 4

I do think that mutation rates can evolve in populations. The reason I believe this is because within all populations undergoing evolution, there is a struggle to survive, variation, and heritability of traits. All of these together point to some evidence for mutation rates evolving within populations. There was a lot of confusion when discussing this in class about focusing on the RATE of mutations, not the mutations themselves. It's fairly well known to anybody in the sciences that a mutation can be heritable--that's one of many ways that variation in a population is achieved! But the rates of mutation? Are some families genes just more prone to mutation? Yes, they can be! It all starts with the cause of the mutations in the first place, which is more often than not, DNA polymerase. Mutations in DNA polymerase can in turn cause higher or lower mutation rates in that organism--a less functional DNA polymerase would usually make more mutations, and a more functional DNA polymerase would make less mutations. The accuracy of DNA polymerase is a heritable trait, meaning that the rates of mutation vary and are heritable. This provides support for evolution because we can make a connection within a few degrees of separation of how the rate of mutations (which affect variability) can be heritable within an organism.


High mutation rates would normally be a good and adaptive quality if the population was being faced with massive predation, natural disasters, or otherwise events that could threaten extinction. In this case, it's kind of the same theory as trying to put in every possible lottery number combination possible to guarantee winning the lottery. That actually did happen by the way, his name was Stefan Mandel and he was a crazy mathematician/economist from Romania. He ended up winning the lottery 14 times by doing this, and it's actually a really interesting story. Anyway, back to the main event: if enough mutations arise to make so many different variations of a species, then at least one of them should be able to live on and save the species from extinction. Many of these mutations might be bad, but with a very high mutation rate, the odds that one of them could help the species stay alive are decent (maybe I should check with that Romanian guy on what the odds of a good mutation are? He seems to be pretty good with probabilities and numbers. This was back in the 60s, so I guess he's probably dead now). Low mutation rates would be helpful when the organism is in a fairly constant environment, because constant mutation may end up inhibiting their fitness and making them unable to stay in their environment. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! ("If it isn't going to improve fitness, don't mutate it" just isn't quite as catchy unfortunately).



Comments

  1. Evolution: Haley JonesSeptember 24, 2021 at 3:11 PM

    Hi Jenna,
    Your take on this is very interesting, especially about the advantages of high mutation rates. I'm not sure that I agree with that because with a high mutation rate there is an odd that one will be good, but there is a much larger odd that one or many of the mutations will be deleterious which would not be good for the individual. Do you think that the high rates of deleterious mutations would be advantageous if it means one mutation may be beneficial?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joel OSeptember 24, 2021 at 9:54 PM

    I really like your break down of when it would be positive to have high mutation rates and low mutation rates. its very clear and concise with a dash of humor. If it ain't broke

    ReplyDelete
  3. megstSeptember 27, 2021 at 7:13 PM

    I really liked how you explained this, it was a very enjoyable to read & i like the humor you added. i think you broke down this topic very well with the mutation rate & how there is confusion of how fast is mutation rate instead of what is the mutation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Madison NSeptember 29, 2021 at 1:18 PM

    Great job, Jenna! I'm a fan of the clear examples and thought process. Touching on your last point, though: "if it ain't broke, don't mutate it" isn't *quite* right. Don't forget - mutation happens all the time, even in organisms with relatively low rates. What happens to these mutated individuals, if they're not well suited for their environment? What happens to individuals with high mutation rates in an environment when lower rates would be more beneficial?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bailee TuckerOctober 19, 2021 at 7:45 PM

    Jenna I loved everything about this blog post! You have made this fun and exciting to read. I appreciate the random fact about the lottery guy from Romania. Also, you pointed out that DNA Polymerase plays a bigger role than we give credit for!

    ReplyDelete

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