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So, a genetic mutation is when DNA—that thing that determines who we are as organisms and how we go about being organisms—is replicated and something wrong happens. An error.
In simple terms, DNA is made up of parts that, when put together, determine one thing or another about our bodies. However, sometimes, the parts can get mixed up, additional parts might be added, or subtracted, this leading to mutations.
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There are a handful of types of genetic mutations in animals. Without getting super nerdy, the DNA code (or parts thereof) can get mixed up in multiple ways: it can get deleted or inserted, duplicated, inverted, frame-shifted, among other ways. These can affect individual cells or entire chromosomes depending on the circumstances, thus leading to varying degrees of mutation.
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So, how do animals get their mutations in the first place?
These can happen throughout the life of an animal or can be inherited from a parent. If a cell is affected by a mutation during life, it’s likely that derivative cells from it will also carry the mutation. In this case, it often only affects a small amount of cells, but inherited mutations, however, will affect all of the offspring cells.
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Mutations are spontaneous. They happen during the process of replicating DNA. And since the body goes through quite a bit of these throughout the day, errors are bound to happen.
Now, the body does have mechanisms to deal with these errors. The biological mechanism that creates DNA also checks it for errors and if something is wrong, it attempts to fix it. I say attempts because it’s not always successful.
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If you’re wondering how the body does repairs, there are essentially 3 ways to go about it: [1] direct reversal, whereby enzymes directly undo the damage done by the DNA-creation chemical reaction; [2] excision repair, whereby the enzymes quite literally remove the wrong part to be replaced by the right one; and [3] double-stranded break repair, which is when a whole chromosome breaks into two, essentially, and the body fixed that.
How much something will be affected by a mutation depends on the size and location.
The effects of germ line mutations, for instance, can vary from neutral to detrimental to beneficial.
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