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Are mutations in DNA arising from truly random events? When I say random, I mean outside of the knowability of Laplace's demon? I know quantum mechanics contai
by wpasc 7y ago
Are mutations in DNA arising from truly random events? When I say random, I mean outside of the knowability of Laplace's demon?
I know quantum mechanics contains true randomness, in the creation of DNA copies does this randomness contribute?
- astazangasta 7y agoThey are definitely not random. Sequence context matters a lot - e.g. in humans CG mutates about 10x more often than other dinucleotides. Other contexts also contribute - genes that are expressed more are more mutable, and so on.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gus_massa 7y agoAs the other comment says, most of the mutation have chemical and thermodinamical causes, that can be seen by a Laplace's demon. (There are some quantum effects here, so add "almost" somewhere in the previous sentence.) Also, it is important that the mutations are random, but nut uniformly random. Some base replacements are mor common than other, some DNA patterns are more prone to get bad copies, ... But if you put a radioactive source that produce x-ray or gamma rays, the emission is a truly quantum random phenom and even a Laplace's demon can't predict them. I'm not sure if the Laplace's demon can "see" the photons while they are traveling, it's difficult to discuss about the properties of fictional entities. But for not very high energy x-rays, the wavelength is bigger than the distance between atoms and the Laplace's demon can't predict in which atom it will hit, but they have less energy are less prone to cause mutations.