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Post by RedRuth1966 on Jan 12, 2018 17:50:12 GMT
Mutations are random but environmental stress can increase the mutation rate in Bacteria and Plants (not sure about animals). There's a scientist called James Shapiro who's written books about how genomes evolve , I think he calls it Natural Genetic Engineering. The central thesis is that genome evolution is induced by environmental stress. It seems unlikely that the mutation rate would actually increase. . Why? It's been know for a long time that the mutation rate in Bacteria increases with environmental stress, there are mechanisms triggered by stress. For instance error prone sigma factors (enzymes for DNA replication) are preferentially used which increase point mutations etc. In plants transposons (jumping genes) are activated by environmental stress and increase the mutation rate. Shapiro's theories aren't really that controversial except when creationists think he's talking about intelligent design. |
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