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Scientists Measure How Quickly Plant Genes Mutate

Posted by Soulskill on from the starting-countdown-to-triffid-massacre dept.

eldavojohn writes "A recent study puts observed numbers on genome mutations in plants. This kind of research is becoming more popular in understanding evolution. The research 'followed all genetic changes in five lines of the mustard relative Arabidopsis thaliana that occurred during 30 generations. In the genome of the final generation they then searched for differences to the genome of the original ancestor.' A single generation has about a one in 140 million chance of mutating any letter of the genome (which has about 120 million base pairs). Sound like bad odds? From the article, 'if one starts to consider that they occur in the genomes of every member of a species, it becomes clear how fluid the genome is: In a collection of only 60 million Arabidopsis plants, each letter in the genome is changed, on average, once. For an organism that produces thousands of seeds in each generation, 60 million is not such a big number at all.' The academic paper is available in Science, though seeing more than the abstract requires a subscription."

6 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. evolution ? by polar+red · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Plants don't evolve, they get changed by the touch of his noodly appendages

    --
    Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    1. Re:evolution ? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bonus points for introducing a second unrelated hot topic.

      What I want to know is the impact of gay marriage, and dating co-workers on all this.

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      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    2. Re:evolution ? by polar+red · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's funny the people warning us about one world (elected)government don't issue warnings about our (unelected)corporate overlords.

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
  2. Enough Already ! by daveime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The academic paper is available in Science, though seeing more than the abstract requires a subscription

    I thought this was "news for nerds, stuff that matters", not "Science magazine touting for subscriptions".

    If we can't even RTFA without paying first, then it has no place on this site IMHO, as we have all come to realize that TFS is at best "a summary", and at worst, complete BS.

    1. Re:Enough Already ! by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Slashdot regularly reports on new products costing hundreds or thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands. You don't get to use the product (particularly if it's hardware) without paying for it, yet many more people will talk about it than will pony up the cash.

      If you want to read the article without a subscription, you can do so for fifteen bucks. If you're in school, or know anyone who is, there's a good chance you can do so for free.

      For those of us in bioinformatics, this kind of thing is our bread and butter. Don't dismiss this as "not news for nerds" just because it doesn't happen to relate to one of the particular kinds of nerdiness about which you care enough to pay a small amount of money.

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      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. Re:Oh great. by bcmm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Genetic diversity is useful, as it make it much harder for a single pathogen to wipe out a population in a short space of time.

    As for the rest, nobody is going to claim that each individual is a species. You've constructed a rather unconvincing straw man to hijack an interesting article, because you have a problem with some imaginary "greenies".

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    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.