Is Reproductive Success the Gold Standard?

Lyx2no can be at least partially right, one mechanism of DNA repair during replication is 'mismatch' repair, which as the name implies is based upon finding mismatches between bases on complementary strands.And of course the obligatory wiki link, for more information.TTFN,WK

Hi Razd,Bluejay has it right, I was talking about the 2 complementary strands making up 1 DNA double helix rather than 2 distinct copies of a gene. There is a mechanism which allows for what you describe, it is called gene conversion and it does involve mismatch repair. During recombination, which can occur when homologous stretches of DNA become aligned as in meiosis, mismatch repair mechanisms can cause non identical stretches to become identical leading to the effective copying of a stretch of genetic material from one chromosome to the other.TTFN,WK