Children inherit from their fathers up to four times more new genetic mutations than those inherited from their mothers, according to a new Icelandic scientific survey.
Errors in parental DNA that pass to the offspring may be the cause of infants' rare hereditary diseases.
This is attributed to the fact that men are constantly producing new sperm in their bodies through a process that is not perfect when copying the genetic material of the father. On the contrary, women do not need to produce new eggs, which means fewer mutations in their genetic material.
The researchers, led by Carrie Stefansson, of the Icelandic genetic decomposition company deCODE, who made the relevant publication in Nature, according to the British Guardian, analyzed the DNA of about 1,500 people and their parents.
It was found that a man spends on average an additional new mutation in his child for every eight months of age, while a woman bears a new mutation for every three years of her age. Thus, a child born by 30-year-old parents will inherit about 45 new mutations from his father and 11 from his mother.
As Stefansson said, most new mutations are considered harmless and contribute to the necessary diversity of the human genome, which helps human development, but is also responsible for the majority of cases of rare hereditary childhood illnesses.
Children from older fathers are more likely to inherit such mutations, which, among other things, are related to mental retardation, autism, schizophrenia and others. This is because as a man grows, his sperm accumulates more mutations,
The study found, however, that in some parts of the genome the new mutations have been mainly bequeathed by mothers. For example, on a section of chromosome 8 the researchers found 50 times more maternal-derived mutations than the father.
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