Breeders: Want to increase mutation rates? Add stress

As many of you may or may not be aware, many organisms experience epigenetic effects when they or their parents experience stress.

But what’s interesting is that when you examine organisms (in this case, E. coli), not only does their epigenetic structure change in response to stress, but the mutation rate observed in their DNA also increases. This has implications if you’re trying to induce new mutations into your plants as well.

Fun stuff!

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