Genetic mutation and human evolution
About 1 out of every 100 million to 1 billion births in every population of all living things, a mistake occurs during copying, which can lead to a genetic mutation.
Mutation is very important in 2 key ways:
1. Instant adaptation: Mutations can cause instant adaptation while natural selection can take thousands or even millions of years to cause the same adaptation.
Adaptations are basically changes or processes of changes by which an organism or species becomes better suited for its environment.
2. Evolution: Mutations are the raw materials of genetic variation. Without Mutation, evolution would not occur.
Evolution eventually results in the emergence of new species. If the genetic variation is divergent enough, the living things will no longer be able to interbreed and produce offspring eg. Dog and Goat.
Humans have 0.001% genetic diversity from each other. Humans have 2% genetic diversity from apes.
The human gene mutation rate is estimated to be approximately 0.5×10^-9 per base pair per year.
That's incredibly slow but for each individual human, 37 trillion cells in the human body mutate every 24 hours.
Most DNA mutations don't cause genetic disorders, only a very small percentage do. For instance, a bad mutation in chromosome 6 may harbor at least one susceptibility gene for Type 1 diabetes.
Another example is unexpectedly frequent heart attacks in humans. The gene that helps prevent clogged arteries was lost 2 to 3 million years ago in the human evolutionary tree. Scientists say that about 2 - 3 million years ago, human ancestors acquired a genetic mutation that inactivated a special gene called CMAH, this made humans deficient in molecules called sialic acids.
DNA mutations mainly have no impact on health or development. For example, some mutations alter a gene's DNA sequence but do not change the function of the protein made by the gene.
What can make a mutation occur faster? Exposure to radiation. Radiation can alter the DNA sequence faster.
Are mutations rare? Yes, very rare. Within a population, each individual mutation is very rare when it first occurs. Usually, it starts with just one copy of that gene in the gene pool of an entire species.
All human DNA points back to a certain man that was born 200,000 years ago. This man was born by a homo Erectus. That male carried the first and only copy of human DNA. There was no female counterpart so it kept passing on the gene for generations. about 50,000 years later, the first female with the matching human DNA emerged and the human species evolved from there.
So all human DNA point to a man that lived 200,000 years ago and a woman that lived about 150,000 years ago in Africa. Modern-day Ethiopia.
Given how often genetic mutations occur and that there are 7.6 billion humans on earth today, it is safe to say that there are at least 10 - 100 humans alive right now that carry the genetic mutation of a new species that may emerge if they survive.
The homo Erectus itself lived for 1.7million years before going extinct shortly after the first humans evolved from their population. We probably wiped them off, humanity style. Thousands of other species of living things, In general, have gone extinct because of human activity. Even the earth itself has started to wince in pains and overheat because of human activity. We are become human, the destroyers of worlds.
