Mutations..?

Question

I am certain that mutations happen in part because of environmental conditions but do they happen as part of nature?Is their a mechanism in germs and people that causes mutations to happen as part of evolution?

Answer 1

Mutations are alterations to your genetic code.

Im not quite sure if they are naturally formed, I think something has to trigger it off?

But If a baby does have a mutation, it would have most likely been formed before birth.

Hope this helped a bit? :)

Answer 2

There is no "mechanism" in mutations. It's not like some evil henchman purposely botching up the processes of life. Mutations are basically like nature's mistake. Think of copying an entire book down by hand - mistakes are bound to happen. It's the same with copying DNA and translating to mRNA. Copying millions upon millions of bases isn't perfect, and those imperfections, those mistakes, are what cause mutations. Of course, there are environmental causes of mutations, such as radiation from harmful light, or toxic wastes that physically change the structure and pairings of DNA. But these mistakes made in copying, along with meiosis + recombination, are the driving force in evolution. These mistakes may turn out to be a life-saver. For example, how did bacteria develop antibiotic resistance? Some members in the population must have had a mutation in their DNA to code for something that would cause antibiotic resistance. "Germs", the viruses and bacteria that you spoke of mutate faster because of their rate of replication. I believe it was E. coli could replicate every 8 minutes if given the right conditions.