Changing or transforming into something different, especially referring to how viruses and organisms change their genetic material.
From Latin 'mutare' (to change). The biological meaning became prominent in the early 1900s when scientists studying genetics needed a term for genetic changes.
Viruses mutate constantly—COVID's Delta and Omicron variants were mutations that made it more or less deadly, showing how a single tiny change in genetic code can change the world!
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