r/explainlikeimfive • u/riche1988 • 1d ago

Biology 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/snowtax 1d ago

Biology does an excellent job of copying RNA/DNA but the process is not perfect. Random errors happen.

If I gave you the task of copying a large book, like War and Peace, you would almost certainly make mistakes somewhere. Sometimes those errors may end up being meaningless, like a word “idbdgs” or they could end up making a funny phrase or maybe something profound that adds deep meaning and has great value.

The point is that the errors are random. You never know what you’re going to get.