Of note, the deletion of msh3 leads to a modest increase in mutation rates [ 55], while msh2Δ or msh6Δ each reduce the fidelity of DNA replication >100-fold in S. pombe [ 56], S. cerevisiae [ 55] and mammals [ 57].
In contrast to results with the cyc1 reversion assay (Earley and Crouse 1998), elimination of MutSα function (msh6 strains) resulted in modest, at best, increases in mutation rates.
For deleterious mutation rates and the evolution of sex see, for example, Kondrashov, A. S. 1988.
The commission wanted thousands of Yanomami blood samples to determine genetic mutation rates in a population completely uncontaminated by radiation.
Mutation rates affect the speed of searching.
After all, viruses -- including Ebola -- tend to have very high mutation rates.
Methodologic errors in mutation detection may also have contributed to the modest mutation prevalence.
Thus, we get an expected value of 3450 experimentally detectable mutations per cell in a tumor of about 1 cm3 or ∼109 cells, assuming a mutation rate of 5×10−9/bp/cell cycle and a modest death rate.
Although the normalized heatmap representation emphasizes the ubiquitous elevation of the C>T mutation rate at Xp CpG trinucleotides, the absolute number of these mutations is relatively modest because of the general depletion of Xp CpGs from the human genome due to the activity of the same, or a similar, mutational process in the germline over evolutionary time.
This profile suggests a very large older population that went through a relatively recent bottleneck approximately 10,000 years ago (assuming a position-wise mutation rate of 2.5 × 10−8 per generation, generation time = 1 year) followed by a modest expansion in recent history.
