On the basis of established knowledge of microbial genetics one can distinguish three major
natural strategies in the spontaneous generation of genetic variations in bacteria. These …

David Metzgar*‡ and Christopher Wills*†* Department of Biology† Center for Molecular
Genetics University of California, San Diego and reproduction. The rate of these back …

Can evolvability—the ability to produce adaptive heritable variation—itself evolve through
adaptive Darwinian evolution? If so, then Darwinian evolution may help create the …

One central tenet of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (1930s-1950s), and the consensus
view among biologists until now, is that all genetic mutations occur by" chance" or at" …

By comparing strategies of genetic alterations introduced in genetic engineering with
spontaneously occurring genetic variation, we have come to conclude that both processes …

The success of pathogenic microbes depends on their ability to colonize host tissues and to
counter host defense mechanisms. Microorganisms can produce overwhelming infection …

Microsatellites (short tandem polynucleotide repeats) are found throughout eukaryotic
genomes at frequencies many orders of magnitude higher than the frequencies predicted to …

The functional properties of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) support an expanded
understanding of evolution's effect on mutability. These DNA tracts are characterized by high …

The mutation rate of an organism is itself evolvable. In stable environments, if faithful
replication is costless, theory predicts that mutation rates will evolve to zero. However …

Biological evolution is known to be driven by the availability of genetic variants.
Spontaneous genetic variation can be the result of a number of specific molecular …