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Somatic mutations are changes to the genetics of a multicellular organism that are not passed on to its offspring through the germline. Most cancers are due to somatic mutations. Somatic is also defined as relating to the wall of the body cavity, particularly as distinguished from the head, limbs, or viscera .
Somatic hypermutation (or SHM) is a cellular mechanism by which the immune system adapts to the new foreign elements that confront it (e.g. microbes).A major component of the process of affinity maturation, SHM diversifies B cell receptors used to recognize foreign elements and allows the immune system to adapt its response to new threats during the lifetime of an organism. [1]
A change in the genetic structure that is not inherited from a parent, and also not passed to offspring, is called a somatic mutation. [88] Somatic mutations are not inherited by an organism's offspring because they do not affect the germline. However, they are passed down to all the progeny of a mutated cell within the same organism during ...
Human somatic variations are somatic mutations (mutations that occur in somatic cells) both at early stages of development and in adult cells.These variations can lead either to pathogenic phenotypes or not, even if their function in healthy conditions is not completely clear yet.
As well as mutations to DNA damage repair genes, mutations also arise in the genes responsible for arresting the cell cycle to allow sufficient time for DNA repair to occur, and some genes are involved in both DNA damage repair and cell cycle checkpoint control, for example ATM and checkpoint kinase 2 (CHEK2) – a tumor suppressor that is ...
Neutral mutations are changes in DNA sequence that are neither beneficial nor detrimental to the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce. In population genetics , mutations in which natural selection does not affect the spread of the mutation in a species are termed neutral mutations.
Differentiated somatic cells of adult mammals generally replicate infrequently or not at all. Such cells, including, for example, brain neurons and muscle myocytes, have little or no cell turnover. Non-replicating cells do not generally generate mutations due to DNA damage-induced errors of replication.
The central role of DNA damage and epigenetic defects in DNA repair genes in carcinogenesis. DNA damage is considered to be the primary cause of cancer. [17] More than 60,000 new naturally-occurring instances of DNA damage arise, on average, per human cell, per day, due to endogenous cellular processes (see article DNA damage (naturally occurring)).