A mutational timer is built into the chemistry of DNA

Re:A mutational timer is built into the chemistry of DNA by woliveirajr on Thursday February 01, 2018 @07:12AM (#16281275)

> Such mismatches, though rare, could serve as the basis of genetic changes that drive evolution and diseases, including cancer.

The evolution part caught my attention. So we are generating some random changes that can lead to evolution (not that all evolution is good or bad, it's just different from the previous version).

And chemical processes are reprodutible, i.e., given the same conditions, you get the same the result... but in a broader sense, DNA has some unstable, changing configuration, where the molecules are constantly reshaping and can generate different combinations.

Seems that it's not easy to recreate life from chemicals elements alone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A mutational timer is built into the chemistry of DNA by fabian2k on Thursday February 01, 2018 @07:53AM (#16281490)

This is just another chemical process, tautomers of nucleic acid bases are well known. Other chemical processes are just as random, but you almost always look at an ensemble of molecules where everything is averaged already.

[ Parent | on HN ]