eli5 What would happen if our cells were unable to mutate?

188 views

“Your body acquires trillions of mutations every day”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/your-body-acquires-trillions-of-new-mutations-every-day/559472/

And I understand why most of the time that’s fine.

But what would happen if your cells were unable to mutate?

In: 1

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You’d need a lot more DNA, and more redundancy in your DNA and more cellular machinery in all your cells to check for mutations and remove them. As a result of more time spent checking, you cells would do less dividing and you’d be less fit for your niche. Something would eat you and your species would die out.

You are viewing 1 out of 3 answers, click here to view all answers.