Scientists Measure How Quickly Plant Genes Mutate

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."

Comments

evolution ?

[polar red]

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

Re:evolution ?

[polar red]

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

Re:Oh great.

[bcmm]

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".