South Dakota State University professor Charles Fenster, an evolutionary biologist, helped assemble an international research group and articulate the basic research questions regarding the randomness of gene mutations through National Science Foundation funding in which Fenster was lead principal investigator from 2002 to 2019, first at the University of Maryland and then at South Dakota State University beginning in 2016.

Analysis of naturally occurring mutations in this small flowering annual plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, has led to the discovery that distribution of mutations is skewed toward areas of the genome that are less likely to cause harm and more likely to benefit the organism.