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© Rupert Taylor

Sep 2, 2009

Since the beginnings of modern genetics scientists have been trying to figure out how often
mutations occur; now they think they have the answer.

According to recent studies, each person has 100 new mutations in their DNA. Almost 70 years ago
the father of modern genetics J.B.S. Haldane speculated that this might be so.

 

 




Jack Haldane, along with Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright founded the study of population
genetics; this is the science of how such things as genetic mutations, natural selection, and genetic
drift bring about evolutionary change.

In 1935, Haldane studied a group of men in London with hemophilia. Through this research he
came to the conclusion that each human had about 150 genetic mutations.

 
 

 





Now an international group of 16 scientists says Haldane was right. One of the scientists is Dr. Yali
Xue from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, England. A news release from
that organization (August 27, 2009) points out that through the work of Xue and colleagues,
³Remarkably, the new research, published today in `

 
, shows that these early
estimates were spot on ± in total, we all carry 100 ± 200 new mutations in our DNA. This is
equivalent to one mutation in each 15 to 30 million nucleotides.´

Most of these mutations are quite harmless and cause no ill effects to people¶s health or physical
appearance.








Writing for `  (September 2, 2009) Sudeep Chand reports that the scientists ³looked at
thousands of genes in the Y chromosomes of two Chinese men. They knew the men were distantly
related, having shared a common ancestor who was born in 1805.´

Picking up the story the Sanger Institute says, ³To establish the rate of mutation, the team examined
an area of the Y chromosome. The Y chromosome is unique in that, apart from rare mutations, it is
passed unchanged from father to son; so mutations accumulate slowly over the generations.´
After many generations, the researchers found there were only a dozen variations, and that only four
were ³true mutations that had occurred naturally through the generations.´



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The ` notes that ³It is hoped that the findings may lead to new ways to reduce mutations and
provide insights into human evolution.´

  reports (September 1, 2009) that ³Understanding mutation rates is key to many
aspects of human evolution and medical research: mutation is the ultimate source of all our genetic
variation and provides a molecular clock for measuring evolutionary timescales. Mutations can also
lead directly to diseases like cancer.´

Understanding the rate at which mutations occur could lead to ways in which the negative effects of
such occurrences might be reduced.

The ` quotes Joseph Nadeau, from the Case Western Reserve University in the United States as
saying, ³We are finally obtaining good reliable estimates of genetic features that are urgently
needed to understand who we are genetically.´

Read more:
http://humangenetics.suite101.com/article.cfm/all_people_are_mutants#ixzz0WzRCdZEM