LIFESCI 7A Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Germline Mutation, Mutation, Somatic Cell
Document Summary
Most mutations are spontaneous, occurring by chance in the absence of any assignable cause. but the most common mutation is the substitution of one nucleotide pair for a different nucleotide pair. Most of these mutations are due to errors in replication. As seen in the graph, the mutation rates for different organisms range across almost eight orders of magnitude. A distinction must be made between mutations that occur in germ cells (haploid gametes and the diploid cells that give rise to them) and mutations that occur in somatic cells (the other cells of the body). In contrast, germ-line mutations are transmitted to future generations because they occur in reproductive cells. For germ-line mutations, it is the rate of mutation per genome per generation that matters more. For somatic mutations, the mutation rate that matters is the rate of mutation per nucleotide per replication.
