Question: can you mutate germs

Ian Hands-Portman answered on 17 Mar 2014:

Yes, it’s very easy and we do it a lot in the lab. Germs aka bacteria mutate by themselves anyway – When DNA is copied in a cell it’s not a perfect process and often mistakes get made – a mutation is just a mistake in DNA copying.

In the lab we use chemicals that increase the mistakes – but only when we want random changes – it is how most crops have been bred for the last 100 years but these day we’re more likely to know what gene we need to change and alter just one or two spots in the DNA