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While genetic mutations occur naturally in the wild, some breeders have come under fire for purposely creating “mutant” animals. In 2015, some South African breeders and ranchers made ...
In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It is a characteristic that would not be observed naturally in a specimen.
Although mutations that cause changes in protein sequences can be harmful to an organism, on occasions the effect may be positive in a given environment. In this case, the mutation may enable the mutant organism to withstand particular environmental stresses better than wild-type organisms, or reproduce more quickly.
Types of mutations that can be introduced by random, site-directed, combinatorial, or insertional mutagenesis. In molecular biology, mutagenesis is an important laboratory technique whereby DNA mutations are deliberately engineered to produce libraries of mutant genes, proteins, strains of bacteria, or other genetically modified organisms.
However, the first published demonstration of how a mutation in a single gene could change an organism's behaviour was carried out by Margaret Bastock in 1956, while she was a Ph.D. student working under Tinbergen at Oxford University. [15] Bastock investigated the yellow mutant of Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly. Upon comparison ...
Cases of mutation bias are cited by mutationism advocates of the extended evolutionary synthesis who have argued that mutation bias is an entirely novel evolutionary principle. This viewpoint has been criticized by Erik Svensson. [ 74 ]
DNA may be modified, either naturally or artificially, by a number of physical, chemical and biological agents, resulting in mutations. Hermann Muller found that "high temperatures" have the ability to mutate genes in the early 1920s, [2] and in 1927, demonstrated a causal link to mutation upon experimenting with an x-ray machine, noting phylogenetic changes when irradiating fruit flies with ...
Homeotic genes are genes which regulate the development of anatomical structures in various organisms such as echinoderms, [1] insects, mammals, and plants. Homeotic genes often encode transcription factor proteins, and these proteins affect development by regulating downstream gene networks involved in body patterning.