What is the significance of mutation in the evolutionary process?

The features of different types of mutations, the high and constant frequency of their occurrence in nature, the impact of mutations on any, including biologically important, traits, and the saturation of natural populations with mutations indicate that mutations as elementary units of hereditary variability can be considered as elementary evolutionary material. A proof of this is the discovery in nature of genetic differences in individual mutations between races, subspecies, and related species.
This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that it is mutations and their combinations that determine the change in the genotypic composition of the population, i.e., the appearance of an elementary evolutionary phenomenon.
As a result of a spontaneous mutation process and errors in the replication of the code of hereditary information, hereditary variability is inevitable and affects all the signs and properties of living organisms without exception, thus being an integral property of living.
Based on the nature of the impact on the population of evolutionary forces and the results of such an impact, it is necessary and sufficient to highlight a few basic, elementary factors. A thorough analysis of the role of various forces exerting pressure on the population shows that all evolutionary factors can be reduced to the following: the mutation process, population waves, isolation, and natural selection.