Nocturne

[Hasbinbad]

Originally Posted by Nihilist_santa [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You can look at the studies on fruit flies and see that these mutations are almost always harmful.

This sentence is wrong, and everything you write after it is moot.

DNA is an incredibly redundant and changeable molecule. Each gene codes for only one protein, and there are many copies of most genes on every strand of DNA (redundancy). If one gene's expression is fucked up by mutations on that part of the DNA sequence, most often what happens is that the gene isn't expressed because the proper start/stop DNA sequences get messed up in that region. In the rare cases where they are expressed anyway, an altered protein can result. This new protein can then: do NOTHING (most of the time), floating around in cell space; rarely be harmful, either directly poisoning the organism or causing some anomaly (say, blood clotting); or rarely causing some beneficial anomaly, such as a color change in the organism (rare). On top of all that, it is usually not one mutation that causes a trait change, but the accumulation of many. This accumulation of many mutations that all have to do with the same thing enough to cause a change in train is exceedingly rare, beneficial or harmful. Benign mutations literally happen all the time with no change in the organism.

Don't speak unless you know what the fuck you're talking about kthx.