Bull: 999 out of every 1000 mutations are harmful or fatal to the organism.
==Bull: 999 out of every 1000 mutations are harmful or fatal to the organism.
And of the extremely rare beneficial mutations, according to Dr. Sanford (inventor of the “Gene Gun”) they are almost always loss of function (not gain of function!) mutations.
That’s not what I meant. Maybe I should go into more detail from the get-go. Let’s put it this way:
You are correct in stating that the majority of mutations, at least those that affect fitness-related traits, are in some way harmful. Most of those that have any affect on fitness, only have a small deleterious effect and do not cause any noticeable problems for organisms except under certain environmental conditions. The relationship between fitness-affecting mutations and the population environment is critically important. [By environment, I also include the relationship with other populations]. If the environment shifts to allow for the small deleterious effects of mutations, then even the collective mutations in a population will not affect survivability. If the environment is not suitable, the accumulated small deleterious mutations can be worse for the population than the severe ones, which are quickly expunged by natural selection.
To get to the point with regards to my comment on not noticing mutations until you have a doctor-worthy problem:
An environment full of advanced medical care and health benefits will increase the survivability of human lineages containing heritable mutations.
There are also a few mutations that are particularly harmful, some particularly beneficial, and some mutations that have absolutely no effect on protein function. You can change a single nucleotide in a codon and wind up with the same amino acid. Also, mutations differ greatly in their rate of occurring at any particular loci. For example, the mutation of a homeotic gene does not occur at the same rate as a mutation in a regulatory gene. There is much more to this but hopefully this will give you an idea of how mutating populations may reproduce for many generations instead of all dying off from lethal problems.
how in the world did you come up with that? We’ve not even begun to understand what every gene does, let alone know whether or not a mutation is beneficial or harmful to any organism.