Question

Are Genetic mutations Good or Bad?

Answer 1

Hint: Genetic mutation is the basis of genetic diversity. It occurs in all organisms at many different levels. It is mainly changes in genetic sequences and a main cause of diversity among all organisms.

Complete answer:
Mutation can be beneficial, harmful or neutral depending on their actions.
It is a sudden heritable change in the phenotype of an individual. It occurs randomly. It occurs at any age, occurs in any cellor at any stage of development of organisms. It is a change in nucleotide sequences. It was first discovered by Wright. Mutation rate varies from gene to gene and some genes exhibit high mutation rate e.g white eye in Drosophila. Mutations are generally harmful for organisms. It gives rise to multiple alleles.
Mutations are of many types but we will discuss here only two of them:
1. Point mutation: in which a single base pair changed into another base pair.
2. Nonsynonymous: in which an amino acid sequence is changed, and such mutations lead to production of different proteins or premature termination of the proteins.
There are various agents of mutations like physical (x rays, gamma rays, alpha particles, etc), chemical agents like cigarette smoke, Acridine dyes, etc.
The molecular mutations are detected by a change in the nucleotide, and a biochemical mutation can be detected by alteration in a biochemical reaction. Morphological mutations can be detected by changes in phenotype characters.
Some mutations are harmful also like ozone layer depletion leads to the upcoming of harmful UV rays that leads to several skin diseases and skin cancer. It is also harmful for animals, plants, etc. Some mutations lead to genetic disorders.

But some mutations are good also, they lead to variations and changes among the organisms through generations. They lead organisms to change themselves according to changing climatic conditions.

Note:
All genetic variation occurs due to mutations. Mutation is important as the first step of evolutionary changes as it creates a new DNA sequence for a particular gene, and thus creates a new allele. Bacteria exert antibiotic resistance due to mutations. Mutations can be induced artificially in plants to enhance good yields.