Genetic mutation

the development of the concept and its evolutionary implications

Ana Barahona Echeverria

pp. 89-107

in: Robert S. Cohen (ed), Mexican studies in the history and philosophy of science, Berlin, Springer, 1995

Abstract

Nowadays, mutation means a change in the kind, number, or nucleotide sequence of the genetic material (Herskowitz, 1962), a heritable change in a chromosome (Watson, 1977), or a change in the genotype not due to a recombination of genes (Dobzhansky, 1970). Mutation is a term used in a general manner to explain the emergence of a character not inherited from ancestors, but heritable by the offspring.