From the research conducted on Icelandic families, scientists found that these fathers had four times as more mutations than the mothers. According to Nature, the father's age was responsible for almost all the variation in the newly inherited mutations in the child's genome. The older the father was, the number of new mutations that were passed down to the child rose exponentially. Researchers estimated that a 36 year old man would pass down twice as many mutations as a father in his 20s, while a 70 year old man would pass down eight times as many mutations to his offspring.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
With age comes more genetic mutations?
From the research conducted on Icelandic families, scientists found that these fathers had four times as more mutations than the mothers. According to Nature, the father's age was responsible for almost all the variation in the newly inherited mutations in the child's genome. The older the father was, the number of new mutations that were passed down to the child rose exponentially. Researchers estimated that a 36 year old man would pass down twice as many mutations as a father in his 20s, while a 70 year old man would pass down eight times as many mutations to his offspring.
Labels:
age,
gene mutations,
Genetics,
older fathers
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