To prevent mistakes during replication, cells have a “proofreading” function to help ensure that bases are paired properly. There are also chemical mechanisms to repair DNA that was not copied properly. However, because of the billions of base pairs involved in, and the complexity of, the protein synthesis process, mistakes may happen. Such mistakes may occur for numerous reasons (including exposure to radiation, drugs, or viruses) or for no apparent reason. Minor variations in DNA are very common and occur in most people. Most variations do not affect subsequent copies of the gene. Mistakes that are duplicated in subsequent copies are called mutations.
Inherited mutations are those that may be passed on to offspring. Mutations can be inherited only when they affect the reproductive cells (sperm or egg). Mutations that do not affect reproductive cells affect the descendants of the mutated cell (for example, becoming a cancer) but are not passed on to offspring.
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Mutations may be unique to an individual or family, and most harmful mutations are rare. Mutations that become so common that they affect more than 1% of a population are called polymorphisms (for example, the human blood types A, B, AB, and O). Most polymorphisms have little or no effect on the phenotype (the actual structure and function of a person’s body).
Mutations may involve small or large segments of DNA. Depending on its size and location, the mutation may have no apparent effect or it may alter the amino acid sequence in a protein or decrease the amount of protein produced. If the protein has a different amino acid sequence, it may function differently or not at all. An absent or nonfunctioning protein is often harmful or fatal. For example, in phenylketonuria, a mutation results in the deficiency or absence of the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase. This deficiency allows the amino acid phenylalanine (absorbed from the diet) to accumulate in the body, ultimately causing severe intellectual disability.
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In rare cases, a mutation introduces a change that is advantageous. For example, in the case of the sickle cell gene, when a person inherits two copies of the abnormal gene, the person will develop sickle cell disease. However, when a person inherits only one copy of the sickle cell gene (called a carrier), the person develops some protection against malaria (a blood infection). Although the protection against malaria can help a carrier survive, sickle cell disease (in a person who has two copies of the gene) causes symptoms and complications that may shorten life span.
Natural selection refers to the concept that mutations that impair survival in a given environment are less likely to be passed on to offspring (and thus become less common in the population), whereas mutations that improve survival progressively become more common. Thus, beneficial mutations, although initially rare, eventually become common. The slow changes that occur over time caused by mutations and natural selection in an interbreeding population collectively are called evolution.
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