The Atacama Desert, a 1000km stretch of parched wasteland, separates it from Peru to the north. And to the west, only a few islands dotted in the Pacific Ocean break the waves that roll onto Chileâs coast from Australasia.
What is a mutation? A mutation is a change that occurs in our DNA sequence, either due to mistakes when the DNA is copied or as the result of environmental factors such as UV light and cigarette smoke.
Mutations are any permanent heritable change in the genetic material which is passed on to daughter cells. They may or may not be revealed in phenotypic change. Mutations can be categorized many ways. They can occur in the genetic material of both somatic and germinal cells (nDNA) and also in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). They may involve whole chromosomes or parts of chromosomes leading to aneuploidy, structural aberrations, and microdeletions, all of which involve many genes.