Riddled with mutations

[corybroo]

Medical News Today had an article about looking at the "healthy" tissue and the mutations therein.

Cancer: Even healthy tissue is 'riddled with mutations'     https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323392.php  Based on an article at http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/10/17/science.aau3879 that I do not have access to.

The researchers "sampled healthy tissue from the esophagi of nine individuals aged 20–75. None of these people had any history of esophageal cancer or other medical issues with that part of their body."

Next, they carried out whole-genome sequencing to map the presence of mutated cells in these healthy samples.  They found that, to their surprise, people in their 20s had hundreds of mutations in each cell. In older participants, this figure rose to more than 2,000 per cell

Mutations in some genes gave the cells a competitive advantage, meaning that, as they divided and conquered, they outcompeted cells without the mutation and colonized large patches of tissue; this created a patchwork of mutant cells.

I interpret this as being one of the reasons apoptosis (as generated by CR) is beneficial.   My *guess* is that apoptosis is likely to go after the most different cells first.

Cory