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The typical human genome also contains 40,000 to 200,000 rare variants observed in less than 0.5% of the population that can only have occurred from at least one de novo germline mutation in the history of human evolution. [142] De novo mutations have also been researched as playing a crucial role in the persistence of genetic disease in humans.
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
Contemporary biologists accept that mutation and selection both play roles in evolution; the mainstream view is that while mutation supplies material for selection in the form of variation, all non-random outcomes are caused by natural selection. [59]
Although mutations in DNA are random, natural selection is not a process of chance: the environment determines the probability of reproductive success. Evolution is an inevitable result of imperfectly copying, self-replicating organisms reproducing over billions of years under the selective pressure of the environment.
Recurrent evolution also referred to as repeated [1] [2] or replicated [3] evolution is the repeated evolution of a particular trait, character, or mutation. [4] Most evolution is the result of drift, often interpreted as the random chance of some alleles being passed down to the next generation and others not.
A de novo mutation (DNM) is any mutation or alteration in the genome of an individual organism (human, animal, plant, microbe, etc.) that was not inherited from its parents. This type of mutation spontaneously occurs during the process of DNA replication during cell division. De novo mutations, by definition, are present in the affected ...
See reticulate evolution. neutral mutation 1. Any mutation of a nucleic acid sequence that is neither beneficial nor detrimental to the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce. 2. Any mutation for which natural selection does not affect the spread of the mutation within a population. nexus hypothesis
Molecular evolution describes how inherited DNA and/or RNA change over evolutionary time, and the consequences of this for proteins and other components of cells and organisms. Molecular evolution is the basis of phylogenetic approaches to describing the tree of life. Molecular evolution overlaps with population genetics, especially on shorter ...