Hyper Speed: Mutation Rate of Evolution Discovered

Everything you need to know about the evolution debate in a single sentence: while one side shouts about how it hasn't happened, the scientists have already measured its speed.  It turns out that when you're interested in things like "proof" and "inquiry" you can make forward progress instead of insisting everything ever was already known before the invention of the lightbulb.

An international collaboration between the Max Planck Institute and Indiana University analyzed the mutations of thirty mustard samples over five years.  The painstaking research was intended to identify every change at every step, instead of the usual "Come back at the end and see what happened."  They found an evolutionary speed of one base pair mutation per 140 million base pairs per generation.  Each plant has 120 million, and when you add up how many millions of each plant there are and how fast they grow that's a breakneck genetic speed.

Another illuminating fact is that every single sequence taken in the tests was checked thirty times.  Most intelligent design fans online don't spellcheck. These scientists make people who triple-check look like cavalier drunkards.  The unprecedented accuracy was made possible by advances in genetic technology, allowing essays which used to take years to be batch-processed in days.

We don't have to worry about rogue mustard seeds with laser vision and grasping tentacles, because the majority of these mutated basepairs have no effect.  They either don't do anything or render their host less effective rather than more, but the huge genetic flux explains how plants can adapt so quickly to changing conditions - including pesticides.

This improved understanding of evolution is essential.  We're entering a genetic age where we no longer have to live with lottery results coded into our cells.  There may be those against the advances, just like the Luddites who smashed factories and the particularly hairy and slope-foreheaded cavemen who clubbed fire users, but it's the future.

Luke McKinney

Evolution caught in the act 

Comments

[Melissa Shippee]

I love this article! I did find it funny though that you used the word "essays" instead of the correct word "assays" after accusing intellectual design fans of not spell-checking. I think it's also interesting to not the similarity in the processes of typing and DNA replicating. When you're translating words from your thoughts to your screen, there's bound to be errors, just like when you're translating RNA to DNA in an assay or in a cell. Maybe this is just insider humor...as the mother of a child who has a serious genetic mutation perhaps due to some sort of transcription or translation error during meiosis in one of my ovules.

This article does leave me with questions, like have they measured the mutation rate in more than one species of plant? In other organisms besides plants? If not, is it possible to generalize a mutation rate based on one species?

I am interested and want to know more!

[Melissa Shippee]

Also "NOTE" my incorrect spelling of "note" in the previous comment. No information is immune!

[Art]

We're entering a genetic age where we no longer have to live with lottery results coded into our cells. There may be those against the advances, just like the Luddites who smashed factories and the particularly hairy and slope-foreheaded cavemen who clubbed fire users, but it's the future.

Yes, I here them chanting "Franken Food", Franken Food" at anti-globalization rallies.

[Frank]

Luke, This was quite a thought provoking piece, but I am trying hard to understand why you call this a "huge genetic flux" when it isn't in many cases. Earlier you wrote that, "They found an evolutionary speed of one base pair mutation per 140 million base pairs per generation." Seems to me that this is VERY SLOW. Wouldn't it lead to a great deal of stability in large organisms instead of what you are trying to argue?

Over time periods of tens of millions of years with short lived organisms like the fruit fly which lives only a week or so, the entire genome would be replaced rapidly, but with long lived organisms like tortoises, the mutation rate would be slow. I've read in various places that the alligator species has survived basically unchanged for 75 million years. Generation length is a critical variable here. That's why virus and bacteria mutation is a huge problem in flu control and in controlling strep based bacterial hospital infections.

[Grallen]

We have 3 billion base pairs as humans. 1 mutation per 140 million would 21.4 unique mutations per person.

With each generation collecting all the mutation of previous generations (roughly doubling the amount of mutations collected with each generation), it would be possible to have a species as distinct from humans as humans are from chimps in just 22 generations. In 2007 the generation length in the USA was 25.2 years. So it's possible to collect enough mutations to alter a species DNA 5.98% in just 554.4 years...

In reality, most mutations would be useless or detrimental and be weeded out by survival of the fittest and sexual selection. But it shows just how capable of change life is.

[BEC]

The complexity of the human body along with the reproductive complex order would along dissolve the theory of evolution and mutation. A small matter evolving into a complete male and another small matter into a complete female that could reproduce is totally impossible even with chance. They are a too complex of a working order.Even adding to it the odds of all plant and animal life being as male and female and reproductive as board and vast as they are it would be impossible for all to evolve to such a working order.
It is only strong evidence that everything is a work set in motion by a higher power . Everywhere you look clearly express's this. This creation earth, man , beast and plant life works hand in hand together one another for each other. Not to mention our salar system as a perfect timed clock.
The only thing that changes is our minds and our bodies with weather or old age. Not mutation but adaptation if you might call it then wrapped up by eternal destination. Just look around and see. thanks

[Dennis Homo Sapiens Nilsson]

@BEC

And what should we do with this "higher power" and "eternal destination"?

[JAS]

Darwin's Black Box.

The Edge of Evolution.

Required reading for anyone wishing to comment on this topic.

Thought provoking to say the least.

As for Evolution vs. Intelligent Design -- The questions that never get answered tend to keep getting asked.

[jesica]

The picks are alright, at least for the moment. We can still hear a lot of rumor outspreading..

[free business listings]

A good service make the guest spend night more in our hostel. They all need a good place to rest and relax.

[supra shoes]

Nice post. My friend John told me about this blog some weeks ago but this is the first time I’m visting. I’ll undoubtedly be back.

[guy stuff]

More research is needed to elaborate upon the relatively new concepts of knowledge and the game. We must take part in this.

[tax debt]

Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such great information being shared freely out there.