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Title: Describe the implications for organisms that have long life spans and short life span... Post by: rwald001 on Feb 7, 2013 Describe the implications for organisms that have long life spans (e.g., humans) and short life spans (e.g., mice). Spontaneous mutation rates in humans are generally higher than in E. coli . Why? What would you expect the mutation frequency to be in each organism?
Title: Describe the implications for organisms that have long life spans and short life span... Post by: MSC88 on Feb 7, 2013 I may be able to help a bit..
Spontaneous mutation rates for humans are generally higher than those for bacteria as you stated. It is not really known why this is the case, but it may be because a human is larger than a bacterium, with more cells and a longer life span. If mutation frequencies are calculated in terms of cell generations, the rates for human cells and bacterial cells would most likely be similar. Human replication is also more complex. |