Submitted by RedditScoutBoy t3_zm4pz1 in askscience
Goddamtoad t1_j0annrx wrote
Reply to comment by aecarol1 in Will my kids inherit the genetic mutations that I aquire during my lifetime? by RedditScoutBoy
But the oocytes in my ovaries were already there - already fully-formed oocytes - when I was born?
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.
[deleted] t1_j0baz7u wrote
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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.
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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