However, the huge variation in seed viability observed at the 0.3% EMS level, suggests that a high mutation frequency has been reached at this concentration.
Considering this upper boundary for the mutational load, the already huge number of mutations and the complete lack of replication repair should make ultra-hypermutated cancer cells highly sensitive to DNA-damaging agents.
"For example, gliomas that recur after treatment with the DNA alkylating agent temozolomide have been shown to carry huge numbers of mutations with a signature typical of such agents" [79].
"We believe that when it does that, there is collateral damage - it mutates its own genome as well and now becomes much more likely to become a cancer cell as it has a huge number of mutations - it's a double-edged sword," said Prof Stratton.
"Vertebrates hit a huge cascade of mutations all at once," he says.
This is an approximation of the Muller's ratchet which, in most cases, operates through a huge number of mutations.
This huge increase in mutations likely occurs by copying undamaged DNA with exceptionally poor fidelity (Tang et al., 2000).
The huge variety of mutations observed in similar tumours originating from the same tissues indicates that many different genotypes can result in the same phenotype (Fig. 3).
Current genome-wide predictors of mutation pathogenicity perform well on average, probably because they can use the huge amount of mutation data available.
If EDM is the huge, ugly, monstrous mutation of authentic dance music, then doesn't it stand to reason that it will have spawned a huger, uglier, more monstrous form of partying?
