As the diverse and intricate mechanisms of evolution have come to be understood, it has grown increasingly certain that the raw materials upon which they depend are the mutations of genes.

A groundbreaking DNA study reveals how genetic mutations pass through generations, offering new insights into disease and ...

Thus, all mutations that affect the fitness of future generations are agents of evolution. Mutations are essential to evolution. Every genetic feature in every organism was, initially, the result ...

View Full Profile. Learn about our Editorial Policies. Mutation: it’s the raw material for evolution. That makes knowing the rate at which it occurs crucial to the study of evolutionary biology.

How could a "bad" gene-- the mutation that causes the sometimes lethal sickle cell disease -- also be beneficial? On the other hand, if it didn't provide some survival advantage, why had the ...

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 left behind a wasteland of abandoned buildings, contaminated land, and a legacy of ...

Understanding the material basis of adaptive evolution has been a central goal in biology dating back to at least the time of ...

A new study analyzes the evolutionary history of 11 deep-sea species from environments stretching from the central Indian ...

A genomic study of gut microbes during antibiotic use finds selective sweeps in a DNA gyrase gene that drive resistance.

DNA contains genes that carry instructions for the manufacture of a protein. If a mutation occurs in a gene that results in a change to the sequence of DNA bases, then the structure of the protein ...