somatic mutations

Most animals can’t pass on mutations that arise spontaneously throughout their lives—but Elkhorn corals can.

Weill Cornell Medicine geneticist Christopher Mason speaks with The Scientist about a bolus of new work on the physiological, cellular, and molecular effects of leaving Earth.

Single-cell genome analyses reveal the amount of mutations a human brain cell will collect from its fetal beginnings until death.

Advances in single-cell technologies have revealed vast differences between cells once thought to be in the same category, calling into question how we define cell type in the first place.

Genomic analysis of an oak tree that lived during Napoleon’s time supports the idea that plants somehow avoid the accumulation of mutations in their stem cells.

A follow-up study confirms that random mutations acquired during normal stem cell division likely play a major role in cancer incidence.

A new algorithm reveals hoards of preparation-induced DNA mutations in publicly available human sequences.

Scientists produce a detailed genomic map of mutations and epigenetic changes associated with smoking tobacco across 17 tumor types. 

Researchers examine the role of long interspersed element-1 retrotransposition in neuronal mosaicism.

Induced pluripotent stem cells—particularly those generated from older patients—should be screened for defects in mitochondrial DNA, a study shows.

The mutation rate in induced pluripotent stem cells is 10 times lower than in somatic cells, scientists show.

Somatic mosaicism may be responsible for a larger proportion of genomic variability within humans than previously thought.

A dendritic cell vaccine targeting melanoma patients’ tumor-specific mutations can activate a broad range of cancer-fighting T cells. 

An analysis of 31 tissues finds that random mutations acquired during stem cell divisions correlate with lifetime cancer risk.  

Some genetic abnormalities that appear to have sprung up independently in children are in fact present in a portion of their parents’ cells.

More than 20 genome-wide mutational “signatures” account for the vast majority of 30 common cancers.

Small circles of extrachromosomal DNA appear to be widespread in mammals, and may be byproducts of small deletions in the nuclear DNA of somatic cells.

Sequencing the DNA of individual neurons is a way to dissect the genes underlying major neurological and psychological disorders.