Slashdot Mirror
Fathers Pass Along More Mutations As They Age
ananyo writes "In the 1930s, the pioneering geneticist J. B. S. Haldane noticed a peculiar inheritance pattern in families with long histories of haemophilia. The faulty mutation responsible for the blood-clotting disorder tended to arise on the X chromosomes that fathers passed to their daughters, rather than on those that mothers passed down. Haldane subsequently proposed that children inherit more mutations from their fathers than their mothers, although he acknowledged that 'it is difficult to see how this could be proved or disproved for many years to come.' That year has finally arrived: whole-genome sequencing of dozens of Icelandic families has at last provided the evidence that eluded Haldane. Moreover, the study, published in Nature, finds that the age at which a father sires children determines how many mutations those offspring inherit. By starting families in their thirties, forties and beyond, men could be increasing the chances that their children will develop autism, schizophrenia and other diseases often linked to new mutations (abstract)."
It meshes with the theory that women choose older men as partners because they are in a better position to care for offspring, but will try to have affairs with younger, sexier men. A man's sperm is separate from his ability to care for a child I suppose.
Cue hundreds of slashdot commenters with some vein of "She's been cheating on me with the gardener I just KNOW it!"
Well there is research that shows that women are attracted to different men when they're ovulating than they are when they're not. Link here
I read the studies and this really isn't that big a deal. For instance, the chance of autism is increased by 20-30% but there is still only a 2% chance of actually having autism appear. So, effectively there is a 0.6% (at most) additional chance that autism will develop in a child whose father is over 40. Autism is an especially hot topic right now due to the increase in proper diagnosis and therefore the increase in documented cases over recent years. This isn't due to more new babies being born with autism, but that they are better at diagnosing it and not thinking it's something else. The chances are still more-or-less the same.