1. 3

A few quick tidbits from the story:

  • In humans each extra year of paternal age results in ~ two extra mutations.
  • Mutation risk is linked to father’s age because the sperm lineage in males keeps dividing, while females have all the eggs they are ever going to produce present at birth.
  • It’s believed that chimps may produce more (cycles of) sperm than humans, and thereby amplifying this affect. Their testes are actually about three times the size of a humans (on average).
  • This effect is greater in chimps than humans by 1.5 times. In chimps, about 90% of new mutations come from the male… whereas in humans, fathers account for about 75% of new mutations.
  1. You must first login , or register before you can comment.

    Markdown formatting available