The life created in it will mutate (8,7)

I believe the answer is:

definite article

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'the' is the definition.
('the' is the definite article in English)

'life created in it will mutate' is the wordplay.
'life created in it' anagrams to 'DEFINITE ARTICLE'.
However, I'm not sure how this is indicated.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for definite article that I've seen before include "part of speech" , "Maybe the" , "In English, it's always the" , "Black and white feature in paper" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.

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