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Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift01:09

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In a population that is not at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of alleles changes over time. Therefore, any deviations from the five conditions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can alter the genetic variation of a given population. Conditions that change the genetic variability of a population include mutations, natural selection, non-random mating, gene flow, and genetic drift (small population size).
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In humans, more than 80% of the genome gets transcribed. However, only around 2% of the genome codes for proteins. The remaining part produces non-coding RNAs which includes ribosomal RNAs, transfer RNAs, telomerase RNAs, and regulatory RNAs, among other types. A large number of regulatory non-coding RNAs have been classified into two groups depending upon their length – small non-coding RNAs, such as microRNA, which are less than 200 nucleotides in length, and long non-coding RNA...
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A population is composed of members of the same species that simultaneously live and interact in the same area. When individuals in a population breed, they pass down their genes to their offspring. Many of these genes are polymorphic, meaning that they occur in multiple variants. Such variations of a gene are referred to as alleles. The collective set of all the alleles within a population is known as the gene pool.
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Among all the organelles in an animal cell, only mitochondria have their own independent genomes. Animal mitochondrial DNA is a double-stranded, closed-circular molecule with around 20,000 base pairs. Mitochondrial DNA is unique in that one of its two strands, the heavy, or H, -strand is guanine rich, whereas the complementary strand is cytosine rich and called the light, or L, -strand. Compared to nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA has a very low percentage of non-coding regions and is marked by...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 25, 2026

An Allele-specific Gene Expression Assay to Test the Functional Basis of Genetic Associations
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Gene sharing has stabilised the genetic code.

Peder Worning1, Rodrigo Ibarra-Chávez2

  • 1Department of Clinical Microbiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark; Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Summary

The genetic code

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Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • The genetic code is nearly universal, but 27 variants exist, mainly in eukaryotes.
  • Prokaryotic conservation of the standard code is poorly understood.
  • Studies suggest the genetic code is more flexible than previously thought.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary forces maintaining the standard genetic code in prokaryotes.
  • To explore the role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in genetic code conservation.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative genomics analysis.
  • Review of synthetic recoding studies.
  • Theoretical modeling of evolutionary dynamics.

Main Results:

  • Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) promotes translational compatibility and code uniformity in prokaryotes.
  • Eukaryotic genetic isolation, due to reproduction and compartmentalization, allows for code divergence.
  • Mobile genetic elements cause only localized decoding disruptions, not widespread changes.

Conclusions:

  • The near-universal genetic code is not a historical accident but an emergent property of microbial HGT.
  • Prokaryotic connectivity drives code conservation, contrasting with eukaryotic divergence.
  • HGT acts as a stabilizing evolutionary force for the genetic code.