Final answer:
The accurate statement about mutations is that they can have positive, negative, or neutral effects on an organism. Beneficial mutations can help adaptation and survival, deleterious mutations can be harmful, and neutral mutations have no significant impact.
Step-by-step explanation:
Regarding mutations, the accurate statement is: C. Mutations can have both positive and negative effects on an organism. Mutations are changes to an organism's DNA and can have a variety of impacts on the organism's characteristics. Beneficial mutations can increase an organism's fitness, which is its ability to survive and reproduce. On the other hand, deleterious mutations can decrease fitness, potentially leading to reduced survival or fewer offspring. Many mutations are neutral and do not have an impact on the organism, such as silent point mutations that do not affect the amino acids in the proteins they encode. Evolution relies on the occurrence of mutations to generate genetic diversity, and their effects can influence whether they become more or less common in a population.