1.   Near neighbours in genetic space are animals that differ from one another by only a single mutation.

2.   A single genetic mutation turns land-loving salamanders into creatures that spend their whole lives in water, says a team of researchers in California.

3.   But in rare instances, a single mutation has a dramatic adaptive effect.

4.   In others, a single mutation in the cancer cells allowed the cells to fend off Gleevec.

5.   Reporting in the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers found that a single mutation, or genetic misspelling, could cause obesity in a certain strain of mice.

6.   Weinberg found that one prominent oncogene in bladder cancer was created by a single mutation, rather than the multiple mutations that were expected.