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Mutations can be beneficial when they give an organism a characteristic that helps it thrive in its environment. A mutation that makes a prey animal faster or more easily camouflaged might be an example. Or a mutation that makes a predator stronger, or one that allows a plant to more easily withstand drought. They promote positive diversity within their species in a way that is beneficial to survival.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoA mutation can benefit an organism if it helps it survive in its environnment. For example, let's say a bug is normally white and lives on white barked trees. Suddenly a volcano explodes and the ashes coat the tree trunks turing the trees black. If a white bug has a mutation and turns black it will be able to survive because it can blend into its background or environment. All of the white bugs will be eaten eventually because they are easier to spot and capture. This is all because of Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoIt all goes back to what Darwin says : natural selection and survival of the fittest. Say there has been a catastrophe and a certain species are dying out. This is because there isn't enough variation. The mutation may help it to withstand whatever this catastrophe was doing.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoIf the mutation leads to a beneficial phenotype, or confers some sort of advantage to the organism - then having the mutation would be better than the normal gene.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoThey make a species diverse
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Are all mutation harmful?
Mutations that succeed [are beneficial] provide Evolution, so not at all.
Are genetic mutations always harmful to the individual?
Genetic mutations are not always harmful to the individual. A few may be beneficial.
Can mutations add information in organisms?
mutations in dna can be advantageous and lead to charecteristics that help a person survive or increase it chances of survival.
Can some DNA mutations be beneficial to an organism?
Gene mutations may have positive or negative effects. Without "positive" gene mutations, a species would not be able to improve itself over time, in order to make it more it more adaptable to its environment. "Negative" gene mutations, by their very nature and definition, tend not to be able to survive in their environment.
Can mutations be beneficial?
They can certainly be either. When researching it closely scientists have found a lot of mutations which don't seem to have any influence. "Bad" mutations tends not to be functional, and often disappear pretty much by themselves one way or another.
Is 'mutations are beneficial to organisms' a true statement about mutations?
Usually mutations have deleterious effects to the organism, but occasionally there are beneficial mutations. Such mutations drive evolution.
De Vries believed the process of evolution was driven by what?
Mutations. He was the father of saltation. The big jump idea that organisms could make large morphological changes by beneficial mutations all at once.
Are all mutation harmful?
Mutations that succeed [are beneficial] provide Evolution, so not at all.
Why are mutations importasnt to the modern theory of evolution?
Without beneficial mutations leading to beneficial variation there would be no natural selection on the individual organism, outside of sexual recombination, which would mean no change in allele frequency over time leading to no evolution. Fortunately, that is never the case in nature and mutations lead to variation and adaptive change in the organisms under selection pressure.
Natural selection is due to?
beneficial mutations
What are the occasional mistakes in copying DNA called and why are they significant for evolutionary change?
Mutations. They, when beneficial, provide variations of organisms genomes for natural selection. Beneficial mutations may confer a slight reproductive advantage to the organism so that genes " promoted " into the next generation change the allele frequency of the population causing evolution.
How mutations can affect organisms?
It depends on if it is in the germ line or in a somatic Cell. In the germ line a mutation can cause birth defects or lethal mutations. In somatic Cells it can cause cancer. The Genetic Mutation will have either of these effects: either beneficial or detrimental.
What is beneficial mutations?
Well, there is no specific type of mutation that is beneficial. They can be harmful, helpful, or have no effect at all.
Are genetic mutations always harmful to the individual?
Genetic mutations are not always harmful to the individual. A few may be beneficial.
The mutations that breeders induce in organisms are passed on to the organisms?
offspring
Why do mutations that occur in the skin or nervous system tend to have little effect on the evolution of a species?
Most mutations that occur have a neutral effect, or none at all, so they would not affect evolution. Organisms with mutations that cause detrimental impact typically will not survive; therefore, they will not reproduce, and the mutation will not be passed on, so the species will not be affected overall. Beneficial mutations are typically the only mutations that will affect an organism's posterity and the evolution of its species, but good mutations are very rare. This is why most mutations have little effect on the evolution of a species.
What will occur to the genes over generations of offspring that can be beneficial harmful or neutral?
Mutations
