The mutagenic source and power of our own evolution.

Abstract

This chapter addresses the molecular mechanism and source of the numerous mutagenic changes that genomes, particularly mammalian genomes, can undergo during normal development and in diseased states. The central role of pathogen and other disease-inducing innate immunity via the action of the cytosine (AID/APOBEC) and adenosine (ADAR) deaminases is reviewed in some depth. The general and universal nature of deaminase-mediated mutagenesis is an important key to understanding cosmic genetic evolutionary processes.