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aecarol1 t1_j09b4u5 wrote

Any cell during your lifetime that acquires a mutation that is in direct motherhood of the egg or sperm you contribute, they can inherit it.

If your kidney has a cell that mutates, they will never see it. The same goes for 99.999% of the cells in your body.

But if a cell in your embryo that later divided to eventually (after several cell generations) become a sperm (or egg), then yes, they can inherit that.

EDIT: edited to clarify that it's "cell generations". There is a lineage of cells in your body that divided from the fertilized egg you came from, eventually leading to the egg or sperm cell you contribute to a child. If any of those cells develop a mutation, it's possible for your child to inherit that change.

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EmilyU1F984 t1_j0amy55 wrote

Yea radiation to the testicles/ovaries or similar mutagens will cause inheritable mutations. Anything else getting damaged in OPs body is irrelevant.

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nyaaaa t1_j0b8frb wrote

Is it really "inheritable" if you don't have it?

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ScipioLongstocking t1_j0berjk wrote

Yeah. That's why people can be carriers for hereditary diseases, but they don't actually have the disease.

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Quantum_Quandry t1_j0e44aa wrote

That’s generally due to recessive genes and not due to a mutation in the cell generations immediately before your gonads (though that too is possible).

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Dal90 t1_j0bfx9f wrote

Epigenetics.

You may have a trait or mutation that doesn't express itself, but your kids my find themselves in the right behavioral or environmental situation it does.

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avian_aficianado t1_j0m0hfn wrote

Its interesting for example how the emergence of epigenetic modifictions can affet both cognitive and endocrinological function. The amount of dopamine recepetors being deactivated during signal transmssion has been correlated with lower IQ test scores, but research into the exact modualtory mechanisms of epigenetics are still being studied. Lactose intolerance is another ntoaable case of methylation during ontogenic development.

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sebwiers t1_j0bg5ul wrote

It's inheritable in that the person born with it can pass it down. You can't really mutate post birth to have a genetic condition; if you have the condition you were born with it.

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MoobyTheGoldenSock t1_j0c3ucn wrote

Not fully irrelevant. That damage can still be passed in some form via epigenetics.

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futurettt t1_j0dcvm7 wrote

Wouldn't the epigenetic modulation have to be implemented in germ line cells (in testes/ovaries)

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MoobyTheGoldenSock t1_j0dftxe wrote

Yes. But that’s the entire point: epigenetic factors can and do affect gametes. You can have a surgery that results in DNA methylation that in turn affects your sperm that in turn gets passed to your offspring:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548616

Obviously, genetics is still by and large the main determiner, but epigenetics can result in genes being expressed or silenced in offspring.

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morphinapg t1_j0b9zqq wrote

Can cells from other parts of your body eventually travel elsewhere?

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shadowyams t1_j0bcd5v wrote

No, mammalian cells are programmed to survive only under a pretty narrow and cell-type specific set of biochemical and physical environments. You don't want bone cells setting up shop in your liver, or hair follicles growing out of your ovaries. If you've ever done primary mammalian cell culture, you know that they're super prone to just committing mass suicide. Cancer cells are the exception, because that's kind of their whole jam.

And at any rate, you can't just turn a random cell into a germ cell. Spermatogenesis and oogenesis don't work that way.

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morphinapg t1_j0bcvgz wrote

Can the DNA from one cell travel to another, like for example from blood cells which travel all over?

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shadowyams t1_j0bew8g wrote

  1. Red blood cells and platelets, which are the vast majority of blood cells, don't have nuclei.

  2. No, not generally.

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screen317 t1_j0e4rhx wrote

Bone marrow cells can however travel all the way across the body to other bones though, pretty cool!

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EmilyU1F984 t1_j0bycbs wrote

Yes, they can, to a limited degree.

But the germ line cells are very very well shielded against other cells intruding. And even if foreign cells went to say your testicles. They aren‘t germ line cells, they wouldn’t make sperm.

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[deleted] t1_j0anbqd wrote

[removed]

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hey_look_its_shiny t1_j0asdko wrote

All of the cells in your body are constantly being exposed to low levels of radiation which can cause mutations.

Sterility occurs at higher levels of radiation, when the reproductive cells suffer enough damage (or accrue enough mutations) to make them functionally inoperable.

There's a meaningful amount of room for non-sterility-causing mutations between those two extremes.

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grandBBQninja t1_j0azqde wrote

This is a very broad statement. You probably mean high doses of ionizing radiation. Even then, there are lots of other mutagens as well.

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Goddamtoad t1_j0annrx wrote

But the oocytes in my ovaries were already there - already fully-formed oocytes - when I was born?

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Plantpong t1_j0arhmi wrote

Living, non-dividing cells (such as oocytes) can still gather damage to their DNA through a variety of ways (mutagenic substances, radiation, etc.). Misrepair of DNA damage by the cells' own repair mechanisms can form mutations which can be inherited, if the mutations don't make the oocyte non-viable of course.

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2legittoquit t1_j0b8r8q wrote

The most common ways of DNA changing is methylation of Cytosine in the DNA. It’s not damage but it blocks translation from happening at that spot and the spots local to it. It effectively changes the expression of that area of DNA.

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aecarol1 t1_j0bvqmn wrote

They were there when you were born, but they could have mutated before your birth. There is a long line of cells between the fertilized single cell embryo that become you, until your oocytes were formed. Any of those cells along that line that develops a mutation may pass it on to their daughter cells until eventually the oocytes were formed, inheriting the mutation.

The egg they produce may well carry that mutation and then to your child.

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scrangos t1_j0az9ao wrote

Does that mean the inverse is also true? a mutation on an egg or sperm (not ovaries or testes) will never affect the parent?

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Alpacaofvengeance t1_j0b2ggr wrote

Sperm, not sure, but eggs can become a type of cancer called a teratoma. https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/19/8/1867/2356435

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Bax_Cadarn t1_j0b75uj wrote

There is this type of cancer called seminoma. Every cell that divides can become cancer.

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scrangos t1_j0bevhu wrote

Ohh, interesting, I wasn't aware that eggs and possibly sperm even were able to replicate on their own, as they don't even have that as part of their regular function.

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G3Minus t1_j0b3g0s wrote

For the sake of your mental health, please DO NOT learn what a teratoma is. Creepy af.

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Xanjis t1_j0b3ikm wrote

If the mutation isn't cancerous it would probably be fine since those reproductive don't really do anything for the parent. If it is a cancerous mutation the problem is it will tend to spread to the rest of the body.

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aecarol1 t1_j0bv18q wrote

Any cell that can divide can become cancer. I don't think it's possible for sperm to become cancerous because they simply don't have all the machinery to divide, but egg cells certainly can divide (not normally) and can initiate a cancer.

The germ cells, which divide to produce eggs and sperm, can also develop cancer.

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