(Farabaugh, 1996). Reverse transcriptase, as opposed to RNA Polymerase II, is thought to be a stronger cause of the occurrence of frameshift mutations. In experiments only 3-13% of all frameshift mutations occurred because of RNA Polymerase II. In prokaryotes the error rate inducing frameshift mutations is only somewhere in the range of .0001 and .00001.

There are several biological processes that help to prevent