pandore comments on This bright orange shark has shocked and delighted scientists

[–] pandore@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 10 months ago (11 children)

"Researchers suspect rare genetic mutations caused the unusual colour, but they don’t know why"

Genetic mutations are random, so there is no reason for the orange colour.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They elaborate further down the article that they suspect the shark to have xanthism in combination with albinism. The Wikipedia article even links a paper about this shark as an example of xanthism observed in sharks now

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[–] pandore@lemmynsfw.com 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

It doesn't change anything to the fact genetic mutations are random and there is no specific reason for one or another to occur.

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[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 1 point 10 months ago

Some mutations are correlated or even linked, and I think some might have specific reasons.

In this case I don't think they meant ‘scientist don't know why these mutations occurred’, so I didn't even understand your comment, it seems

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[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

According to Naranjo, genetic mutations can be completely natural. But they can also be triggered by environmental factors, like temperature changes or pollution.

"We actually don't know why that happened," he said.

He's talking about why the mutation happened

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[–] pandore@lemmynsfw.com 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

I don't see any interest answering this question. Mutations are random, whatever causes it. We already know many causes. From a study of the individual, you cannot identify the cause anyway. Still doesn't make sense to me.

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[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 point 10 months ago

I doubt anybody's trying to answer the question. Sounds like he was just explaining to people that it could have happened for various reasons and we don't really know the specific reason why, and the paper decided to use it as a sound bite.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 0 points 10 months ago (3 children)

But they can be triggered for various reasons, including environmental issues, so they'd like to identify that trigger if that's the cause.

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[–] pandore@lemmynsfw.com -1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If it's environmental, it's not genetic mutations. If it's a genetic mutation, whatever the cause for the mutation (radioactivity, chemical, etc) it's still random and the outcome cannot be predicted. It didn't became orange on purpose.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

It's ALL genetic mutation, no matter what the source. You meant that if it isn't environmental, it's spontaneous, just the genetic roulette wheel taking a weird spin, instead of being influenced by some outside force.

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[–] pandore@lemmynsfw.com 1 point 10 months ago

There is no such thing like a force skewing genetic mutations in a specific direction. It's a stochastic process. You DNA is hit by an ionizing radiation and a modification ensue which can be anything and this happens randomly. Most of the time dysfunctional cells will be destroyed by the immunity system otherwise if the cells proliferate you got cancer. If it is DNA from reproduction cells, you may get a mutant or a nonviable embryo, etc.