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Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Measuring Microbial Mutation Rates with the Fluctuation Assay
Published on: November 28, 2019
Evolution of the mutation rate across primates
Manjusha Chintalapati1, Priya Moorjani1
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States; Center for Computational Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Abstract:
Germline mutations are the source of all heritable variation. In the past few years, whole genome sequencing has allowed direct and comprehensive surveys of mutation patterns in humans and other species. These studies have documented substantial variation in both mutation rates and spectra across primates, the causes of which remain unclear. Here, we review what is currently known about mutation rates in primates, highlight the factors proposed to explain the variation across species, and discuss some implications of these findings on our understanding of the chronology of primate evolution and the process of mutagenesis.
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