Genetic damage and paternal age

The Economist:

WOMEN have to get their reproducing done early. The menopause curtails it, and even before that a woman's fertility falls significantly over the years. Men--those who can find willing partners, at least--do not suffer in quite the same way, as many stories of celebrity elder fathers testify. But perhaps such ageing Lotharios should think twice, for evidence is accumulating that their offspring are at greater-than-average risk of genetic disease.

The latest study to this effect has just been published in Nature by Kari Stefansson and his colleagues at deCODE Genetics, a genetic-analysis company based in Reykjavik that was founded to take advantage of Iceland's excellent medical records and its unique genealogical history. Recent immigrants apart, the relationship of almost everybody on the island to everybody else is known back as far as the first census, in 1703. In many cases it is known back to the first human settlement of the island, in 874.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 31, 2012 4:45 AM
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