Mutation Speed Record
Published: March 8th, 2009
An ultra-fast-mutating organism may offer clues to the origin of life:
An uber-primitive plant pathogen made from naked strands of genetic material mutates faster than any other known organism — and it might just illuminate the origins of life.
Called hammerhead viroids, their mutation rates are orders of magnitude more rapid than those of viruses, the next-most-primitive organisms, which are orders of magnitude more rapid than lowly bacteria.
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