Scientists Show Every Human is a Mutant

The most recent edition of Current Biology gives further support to the Darwinistic model of evolution. Thanks to "next generation" genetic sequencing technology, researchers have found that each person in the human family carries 100 to 200 mutations in his or her DNA. While most of these variations are largely harmless, some are responsible for disease and others offer survival advantages. It seems the facts have a pro-Darwin slant.

The experimental data that demonstrated this came from the sequencing of the Y chromosome of two Chinese men who shared a common ancestor who was born in 1805. Researchers examined the differences in the two men's Y chromosomes, and taking into account the size of the human genome, they estimated that each human has 100 to 200 mutations. Interestingly, JBS Haldane, one of the founders of modern genetics, suspected that the number would be around 150 based on his studies of hemophiliacs back in the 1930s.

One of the scientists, Dr Yali Xue from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire in the UK, said, "The amount of data we generated would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. And finding this tiny number of mutations was more difficult than finding an ant's egg in an emperor's rice store."

Joseph Nadeau, from the Case Western Reserve University in the US, who was not involved in this study, told the BBC, "New mutations are the source of inherited variation, some of which can lead to disease and dysfunction, and some of which determine the nature and pace of evolutionary change . . . . We are finally obtaining good reliable estimates of genetic features that are urgently needed to understand who we are genetically."

This suggests that the standard argument of nature versus nurture is not quite as clear cut as most believe. Genes aren't necessarily the rigid deterministic beasties that high school bio classes made them out to be. Further, it underscores the Darwinistic belief that species, including homo sapiens, are not doomed by their DNA but may be saved by its flexibility. Mutation is not inherently a bad thing. No one would be here without it. Unfortuntately, these mutations have yet to provide superpowers.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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