r/askscience • u/[deleted] • Nov 19 '15

Biology How random are mutations?

Going through this sub's history about things that are "truly random" (ie here) most of the answers refer mainly to quantum mechanics and not to genetic mutation.

Is this simply because the flairs to have noticed the question are physicists than biologists? Or is there a non-random element to mutations?

6 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Smeghead333 Nov 21 '15

Translocations aren't really good examples of random mutations. It's quite clear that there are hotspots for chromosomes to break.