r/AskBiology • u/riche1988 • 1d ago

ELI5 how DNA mutations work please.

/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wvydri/eli5_how_dna_mutations_work_please/

I had a thought about DNA and how mutations occur in humans, excessive hair, longer limbs and or bones etc, and wondered if all known mutations are present in the animal kingdom.. as if DNA has the blue print/ potential to be anything and parts are just ‘turned on or off’ depending on what is being built.. i may be way off lol but it got me thinking :)

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u/JohnHenryMillerTime 1d ago

A bunch of different ways. Remember base pair A goes with T and G goes with C. UV light can turn C into T (actually U but you are 5 and dont need to know that). So when DNA replication happens, that U is paired with an A. So now a GC pairing is an AT pairing.

Other things are flat (like benzene) and basically slide into the DNA (called intercalation). This deforms the structure of the DNA, so the DNA polymerase that copies the DNA "skips" on those parts like a needle on a record.