1:
Dang- you're right. That wikipage had nothing to do with mutation protection. I know it used to, but they changed it, I guess. Sorry about that.
Anyway, here's an example off the top of my head: amino acids can be coded for in way more ways than necessary. In some cases, the amino acid will be coded for by DNA made from mostly As & Ts, while in other cases, the amino acid can be coded for using mostly Gs and Cs. Guanine and cytosine have 3 hydrogen bonds connecting them, while Adenine and thymine only have two. This makes G-C base pairs less susceptible to mutations and, sure enough, bacteria that dry out regularly and need to halt their metabolism have a far larger amount of Guanine and Cytosine in their DNA, to protect it from mutations, than their less hardy cousins.
Here's an article from science magazine on bacteria with fluctuating mutation rates.
And
here is a wiki page that does discuss changes in mutation rates.
2:
That's why, IMO, there should be more than one internet mode. One for F1 settings, one for F2, one for IB, etc...
Even better would be to make the program automatically connect you to whoever has the most similar settings. I still think that's better than treating everyone like a newb.
3:
But how
are they inserted?
Numsgil-
I agree, this isn't usually the case with eukaryotes, like us. But with bacteria, like those simulated in DB, varying mutation rates is not uncommon.