Post by Lone Wanderer on Sept 25, 2019 19:38:16 GMT
Some parents pass on more mutations to their children than others
Everyone is a mutant but some are prone to diverge more than others, report scientists. A new study shows the number of mutations a child has compared to her parents varies dramatically with some people being born with twice as many as others, and that characteristic runs in families.
At birth, children typically have 70 new genetic mutations compared to their parents (out of the 6 billion letters that make both parental copies of DNA sequence). A new study published in eLife shows that number varies dramatically with some people being born with twice as many mutations as others, and that characteristic runs in families.
That difference is based largely on two influences. One is the age of a child's parents. A child born to a father who is 35 years old will likely have more mutations than a sibling born to the same father at 25.
"The number of mutations we pass on to the next generation increases with parental age," said Thomas Sasani, lead author of the study and a graduate student in human genetics at U of U Health. Previous studies have demonstrated the phenomenon, also confirmed by this study.
Source and full article
-- www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190924143205.htm
Everyone is a mutant but some are prone to diverge more than others, report scientists. A new study shows the number of mutations a child has compared to her parents varies dramatically with some people being born with twice as many as others, and that characteristic runs in families.
At birth, children typically have 70 new genetic mutations compared to their parents (out of the 6 billion letters that make both parental copies of DNA sequence). A new study published in eLife shows that number varies dramatically with some people being born with twice as many mutations as others, and that characteristic runs in families.
That difference is based largely on two influences. One is the age of a child's parents. A child born to a father who is 35 years old will likely have more mutations than a sibling born to the same father at 25.
"The number of mutations we pass on to the next generation increases with parental age," said Thomas Sasani, lead author of the study and a graduate student in human genetics at U of U Health. Previous studies have demonstrated the phenomenon, also confirmed by this study.
Source and full article
-- www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190924143205.htm