Conventional wisdom suggests that evolution is driven by mutations that randomly occur throughout an organism’s genome, and that those that make the organism better at surviving or reproducing are then propagated thanks to natural selection. However, a new study cements the countering idea that the process of mutation isn’t evenly distributed across genomes. The work, published in Nature on January 12, finds that there’s a discrepancy in the rates of mutations among genes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Specifically, genes playing a crucial role in survival and reproduction mutate far less often than those that are less important.
Arabidopsis is a small flowering plant that has a comparatively small genome, making it a popular system for genetic research. The study, which began at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Germany and was carried over to University of California, Davis, when lead author and plant scientist J. Grey Monroe ...
