Mutation: Difference between revisions

Although beneficial mutations are theoretically possible, [[natural selection]] does not act at the molecular level, but rather it operates only at the level of the [[organism]]. It selects only those mutations (which work at the molecular level) that produce a physiological change, which alters the survival or reproductive rate of the organism in a favorable way. As such, for every rare beneficial mutation that might occur, countless numbers of harmful mutations are accumulating within the genome of the organism - producing what is known as a "mutation load".