All sorts of exotic and often terrible stuff runs through our heads when we think of genetic mutations, but the vast majority of them are caught before they happen thanks to the crack teams replicating our DNA in our cells.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What are genetic mutations?
I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and this is Short Stuff, the Mysteries of Genetic Mutations edition.
That's right, because we're going to talk about the X-Men.
Yeah, a mutation. I mean, I don't know if it would help you join the X-Men, but there are mutations that alter people, sometimes in positive ways. We usually associate it with negative stuff, like a congenital disease or something. A lot of them are neutral. I think actually the vast majority are neutral. They don't really have any noticeable effect. Some are beneficial.
Chapter 2: Can genetic mutations be beneficial?
Lactose intolerance, immunity to malaria, when someone's vestigial tail turns into a glorious full tail, those are all beneficial genetic mutations. But all of them share something in common, and that is that the replication of the person's genome had some sort of error while it was being copied. Is lactose intolerance a beneficial mutation? No, lactose tolerance.
I thought you said intolerance.
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, so lactose intolerance is apparently the baseline, the default. Lactose tolerance is from a genetic mutation.
All right. Well, let's get into this. Let's talk about DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, as we all like to call it. Such a great word. Around the campfire. That's a molecule that's going to carry genetic material, almost a mutation, when you're developing as a future human.
And structurally, I think we've all seen the – if you've seen Jurassic Park, you've seen what these double – this double helix looks like. It's a long – molecule comprised of nucleotides. And there's two strands to that coil that form the double helix that kind of wind around each other. And that's what the DNA, the full DNA, what would you call it? Just molecule looks like?
The genome? Yeah, the molecule. DNA is a molecule. And you said it, man. It is long. Apparently, if you stretched it out, it would be about two meters or six feet tall if you could figure out how to stretch it out. It's amazing. And it's made of 3.1 billion base pairs of nucleotides. thymine, cytosine, guanine, and adenine. And adenine goes with thymine and cytosine goes with guanine.
And you put all that together, just with those combinations, you have a galaxy of different code that's embedded into the DNA that serves as how, like it tells the rest of your body, each cell, what it's supposed to do and how to do it. And usually that has to do with expressing proteins.
Yeah. And, you know, like you mentioned, as these cells divide and the DNA is making copies of itself, there might be errors here and there. And that's where those mutations come from. And if they're in the egg and sperm cells, those are going to be passed on to the next generation. So that's a genetic mutation that's going to carry on and cause disease or genetic disorders.
You can also have what's called a somatic mutation, and that only affects you. It's not inherited by your future kids.
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Chapter 3: How do mutations occur during DNA replication?
The good news is it's approximately one in every 100 million replications this happens. So that's a pretty good statistic to have in your hip pocket. The other good news is DNA knows what it's doing. So it generally knows when an error happens, and they try to and often can repair and correct that before any problems arise.
Yes. I think that's a pretty good place to take a break, Chuck. So let's take a break, Chuck. Let's do it.
Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation.
To most people, I'm the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024. VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political. It's societal. And at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be.
Chapter 4: What is the difference between germline and somatic mutations?
These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other.
It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family.
I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves.
Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it.
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Chapter 5: How does DNA repair itself after mutations?
Chapter 6: Why are most mutations neutral?
I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves.
Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it.
Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, everyone. We want to tell you about our podcast.
Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I think our universe is absolutely extraordinary.
Hello, I'm Kelly Wienersmith. I study parasites along with nature's other creepy crawlies, and there's just endless things about this universe that I find fascinating.
All right. Well, basically, we're both nerds. We love learning about this extraordinary universe, and we love sharing what we've learned. So that's what we're going to do.
And on our podcast, Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe is all about the mind blowing discoveries we've made about this crazy, beautiful cosmos.
From the tiniest particles to the biggest blue whales.
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