mutations

Cultural  

1. Changes in chromosomes or genes that cause offspring to have characteristics different from those of their parents. Mutations can be caused by the effects of chemicals, radiation, or even ordinary heat on DNA. Mutations produce some of the differences between members of a species on which natural selection acts.

---

Example Sentences

Helpful mutations still appeared, but they often did not have enough time to spread through the population before conditions shifted again.

From Science Daily • May 29, 2026

Much of the data used in the study came from yeast and E. coli, single-celled organisms that make it easier to measure the fitness effects of mutations.

From Science Daily • May 29, 2026

If that many mutations are helpful, the team calculated that more than 99% of amino acid substitutions should be adaptive.

From Science Daily • May 29, 2026

The final advice suggests screening for even fewer people than was originally suggested in November when people with both BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations would have been eligible.

From BBC • May 28, 2026

When I was a college undergraduate in the early 1950’s, I was fortunate enough to work in the laboratory of H. J. Muller, a great geneticist and the man who discovered that radiation produces mutations.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan