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Genetic Variation Reading Adapted from Understanding Evolution: http://evolution.berkeley.edu Mutations. Mutation is a change in DNA, the hereditary material of life. An organism's DNA affects how it looks, how it behaves, and its physiology — all aspects of its life. So a change in an organism's DNA can cause changes in all aspects of its life. Mutations are random. Mutations can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful for the organism, but mutations do not "try" to supply what the organism "needs." In this respect, mutations are random — whether a particular mutation happens or not is unrelated to how useful that mutation would be. Not all mutations matter to evolution. Since all cells in our body contain DNA, there are lots of places for mutations to occur; however, not all mutations matter for evolution. Somatic mutations occur in non-reproductive cells and won't be passed onto offspring. For example, the golden color on half of this Red Delicious apple was caused by a somatic mutation. The seeds of this apple do not carry the mutation. The causes of mutations. 1. DNA fails to copy accurately. Most of the mutations that we think matter to evolution are "naturally-occurring." For example, when a cell divides, it makes a copy of its DNA — and sometimes the copy is not quite perfect. That small difference from the original DNA sequence is a mutation. 2. External influences can create mutations. Mutations can also be caused by exposure to specific chemicals or radiation. These agents cause the DNA to break down. This is not necessarily unnatural—even in the most isolated and pristine environments, DNA breaks down. Nevertheless, when the cell repairs the DNA, it might not do a perfect job of the repair. So the cell would end up with DNA slightly different than the original DNA and hence, a mutation. Genetic Variation Related to Sex Sex can introduce new gene combinations into a population and is an important source of genetic variation. You probably know from experience that siblings are not genetically identical to their parents or to each other (except, of course, for identical twins). That's because when organisms reproduce sexually, some genetic "shuffling" occurs, bringing together new combinations of genes. For example, you might have bushy eyebrows and a big nose since your mom had genes associated with bushy eyebrows and your dad had genes associated with a big nose. These combinations can be good, bad, or neutral. If your future spouse is wild about the bushy eyebrows/big nose combination, you were lucky and hit on a winning combination! This shuffling is important for evolution because it can introduce new combinations of genes every generation. However, it can also break up "good" combinations of genes. Summary of the reading: 4. How does this article connect to your life? Write a four plus sentence paragraph, and use at least one of the sentence starters on the back. Connecting Sentence Frames: I was surprised by… This reminds me of… I was confused about…But now I understand that… This made me wonder about… I used to believe/think that…But now I believe/think that… Analyzing Sentence Frames: The data suggests that… I am convinced that… This shows that… I would be (more) convinced if … When ________ says that, it proves that… Applying Sentence Frames: I think/in my opinion, this information/research is important because … I think/in my opinion we need to be careful about this research because… This research will be helpful to _______. I think that/In my opinion, this research is better for _____ than for ____. I think this because____