chapter-2-3-20121011精编.pptVIP

Chapter 2 小进化—生物进化的机制 Section 3 mutation 突 变 ★ Mutations are changes made to an organism’s genetic material. ★ These changes may be due to errors in replication, errors during transcription , radiation, viruses and many other things. ★ Mutations can occur within a specific gene (small scale), as well as to the chromosome as a whole (large scale). What is a mutation ? ★ Genetics includes several processes that create new types of genetic variation in populations or that allow for the reorganization （重组，改组）of previously existing variation either within genomes or among subpopulations. ★ The ultimate source of genetic variation is mutation, by which we mean any heritable change in the genetic material. Mutation therefore includes a change in the nucleotide （核苷酸）sequence of a single gene as well as the formation of a chromosome rearrangement, such as an inversion (倒位) or a translocation（易位）. Key Concepts ★ Recombination brings mutations of different genes together into the same chromosome. Migration enables mutations to spread among subpopulations. ★ A transposable element （转座子）is a DNA sequence able to replicate and insert into any of a large number of sites in the genome. By insertion in or near a gene, a transposable element can alter the level or pattern of gene expression. The recombination between transposable elements can result in a chromosome rearrangement（染色体重排）, for example, an inversion. ★ In this chapter, we consider the processes by which genetic variation is created. ★ Mutation is the ultimate source of genetic variation for evolutionary change. ★ However, most wild type genes mutate at a very low rate, typically in the range from 10-4 to 10-6 new mutations per gene per generation. ★ Even a low mutation rate can create many new mutant alleles in a large population, because each of a large number of genes is at the risk of mutating. ★ In a population of size N diploid organisms, there are 2N copies of each gene, each of which can mutate in any