+1 862 207 3288 Darwin’s Mutation Theory
The theory of mutation ‘Mutation theory’ was propounded by a Dutch scientist, De-Vries in 1901. An unusual occurrence in a plant called evening primrose was observed by him. In a similar environment, a new generation of plants was found to be developing. He found a flower with short style in one of the plants. Seeds of this particular plant gave rise to plants bearing flowers with short styles. Thus, he concluded that this was hereditary character in the plant. He was of the opinion that this change was large sudden and automatic. He called this change a mutation. He also stated that evolution takes place not by gradual changes but is possible due to origin of species by large, sudden and self arising mutations. DNA is the hereditary material and change in the structure of DNA is called mutation. A mutation can be either advantageous or harmful to the organisms. Harmful alteration is more likely but accidental occurrence of a favorable mutation is possible. This sort of favorable mutation helps the organism to adapt itself to the environment. Thus such mutations render the organism capable of adapting to the environment in the struggle for existence. Most scientists accepted the fact that amongst all the theories of evolution only the mutation theory clearly explains the process of organic evolution.
