German scientists discover rate of evolution - in cress
Earthtimes | 01 Jan 2010
Tuebingen, Germany - German scientists have for the first time measured the rate at which the basic process of evolution - genetic mutation - naturally occurs in plants, the journal Science reported Friday. The team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biology in Tuebingen studied genetic mutation in a species of cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), and found that each gene in the plant will mutate on average once in every 143 million generations.
This rate of genetic change was much faster than expected, and could explain how species adapt to changing surroundings quickly, and gave the example of weeds becoming resistant to specific weedkillers within just a few generations.
The same speed of genetic change, wrote the researchers, could in theory be expected in human DNA, meaning that with six billion people on earth each form of human gene would be permanently mutating somewhere on the planet.
"Everything that is genetically possible is therefore worked through in a very short time," said project leader Detlef Weigel.
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