Could a Retro-Virus be designed to accelerate random mutation?

Assuming a genetic engineer possessed sufficient knowledge and facilities, could they design a highly infectious Retro-Virus or Adenovirus, which would drastically increase the rate of random mutations in infected life forms?

To clarify, I am asking if this could cause rapid mutation over generations, not necessarily in individuals.

Side question, if they could, would this accelerate the organisms evolution, out just push it to extinction?

is a duplicate

This question has been asked before and has already been answered. It should be marked as a duplicate.

Please enter the URL of the proposed duplicate in the details field below.

not constructive

This question cannot be answered in a way that is helpful to anyone. It's not possible to learn something from possible answers, except for the solution for the specific problem of the asker.

Communities

Could a Retro-Virus be designed to accelerate random mutation?

0 comment threads

0 answers