All organisms are subject to DNA damage from both endogenous and environmental sources. DNA damage that is not fully repaired can lead to mutations. Mutagenesis is now understood to be an active process, in part facilitated by lower-fidelity DNA polymerases that replicate DNA in an error-prone manner. Y-family DNA polymerases, found throughout all domains of life, are characterized by their low...

Experimental animals are indispensable in life science-related research, including cancer studies. After rats and mice, small fishes, such as zebrafish medaka, the second most frequently used model species. Fish models have some advantageous physical characteristics that make them suitable for their size, transparency, genetic manipulability, ease of handling, highly ortholog correspondence wit...

Mutation is the basis of adaptation. Yet, most mutations are detrimental, and elevating mutation rates will impair a population's fitness in the short term. The latter realization has led to the concept of lethal mutagenesis for curing viral infections, and work with drugs such as ribavirin has supported this perspective. As yet, there is no formal theory of lethal mutagenesis, although referen...

Abstract Induced mutations are important for genetic research and breeding. Mutations induced by physical or chemical mutagenesis usually heterozygous during the early generations. However, must be fixed prior to phenotyping field trials, which requires additional rounds of self-pollination. Microspore culture is an effective method produce double-haploid (DH) plants that homozygotes. In this s...

Abstract Antibiotic-resistant bacteria severely threaten human health. Besides spontaneous mutations generated by endogenous factors, the resistance might also originate from induced certain antibiotics, such as fluoroquinolones. Such antibiotics increase genome-wide mutation rate introducing replication errors SOS response pathway or decreasing efficiency of DNA repair systems. However, relati...