All Questions
106
questions
5
votes
3
answers
123
views
What has caused my oxeye daisies to mutate?
Some oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) in my garden are showing strange mutations. I have a few oxeye daisy plants around my garden in different areas, but only one plant's flowers are showing ...
- 51
0
votes
1
answer
43
views
Has perturbation theory been applied to mutation process frameworks?
For example, imagine this Feynman diagram:
This is analogous to mutational homoplasy.
When comparing haplotypes, there are many possible tree topologies. Under maximum parsimony, we ignore suboptimal ...
- 401
0
votes
1
answer
36
views
Is there potential to modify GM crops to inhibit their reproduction with non-GM crops?
I've been reading on terminator gene sequences and was wondering whether the same technology could be applied to GM crops to prevent transgene flow. Turns out Monsanto had developed the technology but ...
0
votes
0
answers
20
views
Ames Assay Confusion: Aren't the odds of spontaneous revertants too low to be able to accurately test the mutagenicity of certain compounds?
I am a student conducting a test with the Ames Assay. This assay uses a strain of bacteria that has a mutation in an amino acid synthesizing operon, which doesn't allow it to synthesize its protein. ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
133
views
Can someone with albinism have red hair with very pale skin and blue eyes?
I have heard of a type of albinism that occurs in races with darker skin that can give people red hair, but in the pictures I've seen, they usually have reddish-brown hair, a medium skin tone, and ...
- 1
0
votes
2
answers
124
views
Are mutation rates normally distributed? If not, what are they?
On average, there are 64 mutations per generation in the human genome. Is this constant, or can we expect variation in the number of mutations?
- 139
0
votes
2
answers
119
views
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. ...
- 297
1
vote
1
answer
63
views
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 ...
- 716
5
votes
1
answer
137
views
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 ...
- 151
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
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?
- 3
0
votes
1
answer
219
views
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 ...
- 180
0
votes
1
answer
63
views
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 ...
3
votes
3
answers
121
views
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 ...
- 673
1
vote
0
answers
72
views
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 ...
- 673
0
votes
2
answers
59
views
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 ...
- 401