What is an error disaster?

The error disaster, originally designed by Leslie Orgel in 1963, claims that by copying DNA errors and incorrect placement of amino acids in the synthesis of proteins could aggregate throughout the body and eventually cause catastrophic disintegrations in the form of apparent aging. Experimental tests that tried to determine the differences in nucleotide sequences of specific proteins that correlate with age have always failed, so the theory has been largely rejected. In vertebrates, evolution had to struggle with the most imaginable negative consequence of copying errors that can be imagined - cancer - so it has DNA copying mechanisms that work on extremely high loyalty. Because these mechanisms are so tuned so well, an error disaster of aging, while an interesting theory is not a real phenomenon.

Sometimes the phrase "error disaster" is used with reference to smaller organisms such as viruses.An error disaster in viral populations is similar to an error disaster, but more than cells than cells. But like an error disaster, an error disaster cannot be convincingly demonstrated in the viral population. The virus has a given genome, and if the level of mutation between viruses was so high that the whole species is falling apart, then such viruses would not exist in the first place. It is also contrary to the idea that the specific genome is associated with every type of virus that has shown to be experimentally true.

Through mathematical calculations, we can determine the degree of mutation that would cause cause disasters if they were real values ​​but are not. All viruses and all human cells can be shown to have a mutation rate significantly less than those that would predict an error disaster to eventually appear. An error disaster is therefore a discredited theory, but means to discredit it is an important educational story for biologists and Genetics.