User:Lilavasquez

May 31st. 2017 -- Peer Review by Joyce Xiong on "Mutation Rate"

Introduction section:

"Mutation rates are typically given for a specific class of mutation, for instance point mutations, which are small or large scale insertions or deletions. There are all mis-sense and nonsense mutations, which are variations of point mutations."- It would help clarify the introduction if the wording of this portion were rearranged. I would cut "typically" and change "a specific class of mutation" to "specific classes of mutations" (since you used mutation rates plural). I would also begin talking about point mutations in a separate sentence (perhaps write "Point mutations are class of mutation....." instead of using "for instance..." to continue your sentence)

Also, I think it might be confusing to casually use the words- insertion, deletion, nonsense, missense, and substitution all in the intro. Since the audience may comprised of readers who have not been exposed to mutation studies, I would use Frameshift mutation and point mutation (broader terms that will the job of explaining more specific types of mutations if the readers are interested in more than just mutation rates) without going into insertion and deletion and missense/nonsense. It is not a bad idea to cut those words out altogether either since they are not mentioned anywhere else in the article.

"Having knowledge of mutation rates is vital to understanding the future of cancers and many hereditary diseases."- I don't think this sentence is necessary. The sentence might come off as "opinionated" since there may be people who don't think understanding mutation rates is all that vital. To be safe, I wouldn't include this sentence.

Background:

"a new mutation is said to create a new allele"-- I'm not sure if this sentence is accurate because aren't there mutations that do not create new alleles (i.e. silent mutations that don't have an effect, mutations that are not effective enough might not have an affect on phenotype, etc.)

Consequences:

"As stated in the introduction, cancer and different hereditary diseases are consequences of mutations rates. When normal cells are going through the cell cycle if they are reproducing at a high rate they have a safety mechanism in place to stop the over production, which can lead to cancer." -- "As stated in the introduction" is no necessary. Also, the second sentence is not complete; I am not sure what is being said.

The part about TP53 is slightly confusing for me because I'm not sure if TP53 is the only protein associated with overproduction or if its just one out of many proteins. If it is one our of many, you should include identify other proteins so that it doesn't seem like TP53 is the only protein associated.

"Down syndrome, which occurs when there is a genetic mutation on chromosome 21 causing delays in development during childhood. Cystic fibrosis, which is a genetic disorder mostly affecting the lungs, but also other organs of the body."-- I think you can either just list down syndrome and cystic fibrosis as possible consquences or give a deeper explanation of what they are.

Overall, I think wording and grammar needs to be worked on in entirety (it may be because your article receives a lot of edits from other people). Furthermore, I find it hard to relate back to "mutation rates" throughout article. For instance, it seems like the consequences are just what happens due to mutations, but not exactly mutation rates. I would suggest finding some effects that mutation rates, specifically, are responsible for.

Good luck!!

Talk Mutation rate