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The odds of losing at genetic roulette

Nature volume 397, pages 293–294 (1999)Cite this article

The number of harmful mutations that arise in each generation has been measured, and it is surprisingly high. This supports one theory of why evolution favours sexual reproduction, but the consequences for human health are unclear.

The rate at which deleterious mutations occur in a genome is clearly a quantity of interest — not least when the genome is our own. It becomes particularly important if, as some have argued1, the rate in some species is high, at several new mutations each generation. Yet the deleterious mutation rate has been notoriously difficult to measure, and no convincing estimates exist for any vertebrate. On page 344 of this issue2, Eyre-Walker and Keightley give the first such estimates for ourselves, chimpanzees and gorillas.

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Figure 1: Each member of each generation of humans probably has several harmful new mutations in their genome.

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References

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  1. Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    James F. Crow

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  1. James F. Crow
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Crow, J. The odds of losing at genetic roulette. Nature 397, 293–294 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/16789

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