MUTATION • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Mutation

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/mjutˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

mutation n.

1.

Change; alteration, either in form or qualities. "The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe are no fit matter for this present argument."

2.

(Biol.) Gradual definitely tending variation, such as may be observed in a group of organisms in the fossils of successive geological levels.

3.

(Biol.)

(a)

As now employed (first by de Vries), a cellular process resulting in a sudden inheritable variation (the offspring differing from its parents in some well-marked character or characters) as distinguished from a gradual variation in which the new characters become fully developed only in the course of many generations. The occurrence of mutations, the selection of strains carrying mutations permitting enhanced survival under prevailing conditions, and the mechanism of hereditary of the characters so appearing, are well-established facts; whether and to what extent the mutation process has played the most important part in the evolution of the existing species and other groups of organisms is an unresolved question.

(b)

The result of the above process; a suddenly produced variation. Note: Mutations can occur by a change in the fundamental coding sequence of the hereditary material, which in most organisms is DNA, but in some viruses is RNA. It can also occur by rearrangement of an organism's chromosomes. Specific mutations due to a change in DNA sequence have been recognized as causing certain specific hereditary diseases. Certain processes which produce variation in the genotype of an organism, such as sexual mixing of chromosomes in offspring, or artificially induced recombination or introduction of novel genetic material into an organism, are not referred to as mutation.

4.

(Biol.) A variant strain of an organism in which the hereditary variant property is caused by a mutation (3).

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Etymology of 'Mutation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mutation" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the University of Strasburg, who insists that species are only relatively stable, admits that they remain persistent as long as they exist under the same external conditions. Time is, therefore, not a factor in the mutation of species. Nor are environing conditions factors, except as a failure of conditions results in the disappearance of species, as the presence of conditions results ...

— Life: Its True Genesis • R. W. Wright

... and so, as in many another phrase, declared to be exempt from decay, and therefore vigorous with unchanging youth. How that comes we cannot tell. Whether because that body of glory has no proclivity to mutation and decay, or whether the perpetual volition and power of God counteract such tendency and give, as the Book of Revelation says,' to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God'—matters not at all. The truth of the promise ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren

... the prince, allow two hours to your dinner, and two hours in the projecting where to get one, you have still a fair time to yourself, and one half hour in a week, without question, to tell me that you are alive, and that in this dismal time of mutation, you are so far from change, that you continue even the ...

— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle

... shall expect less than a strange catastrophe of human affairs in the commonwealth, monarchy, and kingdom of England? There will then, either in or about these times, or near that year, appear in this kingdom so strange a revolution of fate, so grand a catastrophe and great mutation unto this monarchy and government, as never yet appeared; of which, as the time now stands, I have no liberty or encouragement to deliver my opinion—only, it will be ominous to London, unto her merchants at sea, ...

— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant

... a couple of explanations that I would rather explore first, before dragging in an alien life form. There may have been a mutation or an inherited disease that has deformed ...

— Planet of the Damned • Harry Harrison

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