Those of us who have worked on viral diseases recognize that the reason that viruses are able to evolve so quickly, particularly retroviruses, is their failure to have genetic correction capability.
The pharmaceutical industry put out a fair number of protease inhibitors in the fight against AIDS by the early 90's.
By 2000, these mutants had appeared:
D30N: Nelfinavir. (Agouron/Pfizer).
M46I/I47V/I50V: Amprenavir (BMS).
L10R/M46I/L63P/V82T/I84V: Indinavir (Merck)
M46I/L63P/A71V/V82F/I84V: Ritinovir (Abbott).
Saquinavir: G48V/L90M (Roche)
Antiviral Drug Discovery Summitt, March 28-29, 2001 Protein Science (2000) 9: 1898-1904
(I was involved in the production of three of them, and the phase I and II development of a 4th. It was a very exciting time in my career.)
Most of the mutant viral particles produced were not functional, but because a large number of mutants were generated rapidly, only maybe one in a million had to be functional and among those that were generated, if they had the right mutations, they were selected, by the presence of the protease inhibitor to preferentially breed. (In a person with untreated HIV, about 10 billion viral particles are produced every day.) This mutation rate was especially the case in places where there was noncompliance with the dosing regimen, which might happen for any number of reasons.
I would imagine that for early life, the lack of repair mechanisms led to the rapid rise of diversity, and to the extent it was driven by radiation, it sped evolution.
As more complex life evolved, in particular eucaryotic cells, selection did call for repair mechanisms, and consequently the incurred a survival advantage. The idea that repair mechanisms are stimulated by insults, in particular anti-oxidant enzymes, is offered as the theoretical basis for hormesis, a topic that is increasingly discussed, but not quantifiable at a dose response level. If it pans out, it would not be wholly surprising.
Omics investigations will help things along.
I'm currently working on my first gene insertion project, not on the gene itself, but the gene product. As a result my recent professional readings have been involved in the study of genetic diseases. Our omics instruments are making the pathway to success ever clearer.
In a sense, the mRNA vaccines, an absolutely tremendous scientific and technical triumph, were lit by omics studies.
These tools are very powerful, incredible.
= new reply since forum marked as read