3 ms·
Mutation rates are high enough that we should expect at least a few every division. There are supposedly n~6e9 base pairs[1] and mutation rate is said to be p~1
by nonbel 9y ago
Mutation rates are high enough that we should expect at least a few every division. There are supposedly n~6e9 base pairs[1] and mutation rate is said to be p~1e-8 per bp per division[2].
Assuming each mutation is independent, etc, etc we get a back of the napkin via the binomial distribution with mean = n*p ~ 60 mutations per division.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genome
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_rate
- chrisamiller 9y agoMost estimates I'm familiar with are substantially lower than that - between 0.1 and 3 errors per cell division.
- nonbel 9y agoThanks, actually the wikipedia link was "per generation" and they assume ~ 100 divisions/mitoses per human generation. So it should be 1e-10 mutations/bp/division. However, that is for germline, somatic mutation rates are apparently 10-100x more more common: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15183 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15183 These rates no doubt vary by cell type, environment, etc. I was actually thinking something like 1e-6 to 1e-10 mutations/bp/division.