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The overwhelming majority of mutations have very small effects.

  • Author: Laurence Loewe

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The overwhelming majority of mutations have very small effects.
This example of a possible distribution of deleterious mutational effects was obtained from DNA sequence polymorphism data from natural populations of two Drosophila species. The spike at 10-10 includes all smaller effects, whereas effects are not shown if they induce a structural damage that is equivalent to selection coefficients that are 'super-lethal' (see Loewe and Charlesworth 2006 for more details).

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Genetic Mutation

Is it possible to have "too many" mutations? What about "too few"? While mutations are necessary for evolution, they can damage existing adaptations as well.

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Nafeesa Naveed 10/06/2013 what are the the effects of mutation on existing adaptation in evolution process? is there any example of it?

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