Microorganisms often elevate their rate of genetic mutation in response to stress using complex mechanisms such as aneuploidy,3 slipped-strand mispairing, polymerase slippage, gene amplification, deregulation of mismatch repair, and recombination between imprecise homologies.4 These processes sound complex because they are. The point is that necessity is the mother of invention: single-cell organisms find ways to increase mutation rates when needed.
