The vast majority of mutations are infrequent. The distribution and frequency of mutations varies among different populations which has implications for genetic screening and counseling. Drug discovery for therapeutics to address CF in all patients is complicated due to a large number of disease-causing mutations. Ideally, a library of cell lines and cell-based assays corresponding to all mutants is required to screen for broadly-active drug candidates. Cell engineering methods including fluorogenic oligonucleotide signaling probes may be used to detect and isolate clonal cell lines for each mutant. Mutations consist of replacements, duplications, deletions or shortenings in the CFTR gene. This may result in proteins that may not function, work less effectively, are more quickly degraded, or are present in inadequate numbers. It has been hypothesized that mutations in the CFTR gene may confer a selective advantage to heterozygous individuals. Cells expressing a mutant form of the CFTR protein are resistant to invasion by the Salmonella typhi bacterium, the agent of typhoid fever, and mice carrying a single copy of mutant CFTR are resistant to diarrhea caused by cholera toxin. The most common mutations that cause cystic fibrosis and pancreatic insufficiency in humans are: DeltaF508 DeltaF508 (ΔF508), full name CFTRΔF508 or F508del-CFTR (rs113993960), is a specific mutation within the CFTR gene involving deletion of three nucleotides spanning positions 507 and 508 of the CFTR gene on chromosome 7, which ultimately results in the loss of a single codon for the amino acid phenylalanine (F). A person with the CFTRΔF508 mutation will produce an abnormal CFTR protein that lacks this phenylalanine residue and which cannot fold properly. Most of this mutated protein does not escape the endoplasmic reticulum for further processing. The small amounts that reach the plasma membrane are destabilized and the anion channel opens infrequently. Having two copies of this mutation (one inherited from each parent) is by far the most common cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), responsible for nearly two-thirds of mutations worldwide. Effects The CFTR protein is largely expressed in cells of the pancreas, intestinal and respiratory epithelia, and all exocrine glands. When properly folded, it is shuttled to the cell membrane, where it becomes a transmembrane protein that forms aqueous channels allowing the flow of chloride and bicarbonate ions out of cells; it also simultaneously inhibits the uptake of sodium ions by another channel protein. Both of these functions help to maintain an ion gradient that causes