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One in seven cases of child’s autism where just one child in the family had autism was caused by the mistake in DNA according to Nature Reports journal. Study also discovered that these mistakes are more likely to be contained in sperm rather than in eggs. So, the older the man is the more mistakes in sperm he has, which could lead to autism in children.
It is generally considered that up to 90 percent of autism development risk is predetermined by their genes, but it is poorly studied. So, three teams of researchers (including Yale and Harvard university researchers) analyzed the DNA of over hundreds of parents of children with autism and their children themselves including their unaffected siblings.
The project uncovered the genetic flaws called “de novo mutations”. These mutations first appear in baby’s DNA and are the result of problems with sperm or egg production. The researchers found that sperm is a much more culpable than eggs since there were four mutations that were cause by sperm and only one initiated by eggs.
The findings support the results of the previous study that show that older fathers are more likely to have autistic children in comparison with younger men. According to the results of one study a man who is 40 or over has a six times higher possibility of having an autistic child.
