Are all mutations deadly?

1 Answer
Jan 5, 2016

No.

Explanation:

During evolution process some mutations turned out to be beneficial. Maybe it's a common belief that mutations are "bad", but in practice, they differ a lot from each other.

Most famous example of advantageous mutations is the one described on wiki: [quote]
Another example is sickle-cell disease, a blood disorder in which the body produces an abnormal type of the oxygen-carrying substance hemoglobin in the red blood cells. One-third of all indigenous inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa carry the gene, because, in areas where malaria is common, there is a survival value in carrying only a single sickle-cell gene (sickle cell trait). Those with only one of the two alleles of the sickle-cell disease are more resistant to malaria, since the infestation of the malaria Plasmodium is halted by the sickling of the cells that it infests.

Most common example of bad mutation is the one that leads to cancer.