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| When many people think of mutants, they think of strange creatures with extra eyes and arms or turtles that do karate and eat pizza. However, in reality, we are all mutants. A mutant is just a living thing that has differences in its genes when compared to the "normal" genes for that kind of life form. Of course, there really is no such thing as a "normal" person. We are all different in one way or another and this is caused by slight changes in our genes (or more precisely in the DNA that makes up our genes). These "mutations" happen randomly from time to time and the ones that are not bad for you get passed along from parents to children. This is how evolution works. Many mutations result in poor health or death of the cell with the mutation, but if such mutations are passed to offspring, the offspring are unlikely to ever even be born or hatch (they die before they get that far). The same is true with bacteria. Many mutations simply kill the bacterium or make it unable to compete for resources with the other healthy bacteria and therefore, it never is able to reproduce and the mutation disappears from the population. However, under controlled conditions in the laboratory, we can sometimes isolate these sort of sickly mutants and grow them up, even though they would never make it in the wild. Often these mutations remove some particular protein from the bacterium. Studying these mutants allows us to see how the system differs in the absence of the protein that was removed by the mutant. This lets us learn a great deal about the role that the normal gene product (protein) plays in the life of the organism. Are you sure you would not like to help Dr. Splicer discover the secrets of biological solar energy conversion using genetics? |  |
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Photosynthesis Center Arizona State University Box 871604 Room PSD 209 Tempe, AZ 85287-1604
09 February 2006 |
phone: (480) 965-1963 fax: (480) 965-2747 |