Human semen not only accumulates genetic mutations with age; as the percentage of sperm carrying potentially serious mutations increases, so does the risk of developing diseases in offspring.
This is according to a new study by researchers at the Sanger Institute and King’s College London. The team sequenced semen samples from individuals between the ages of 24 and 75, using very high-precision technologies, and found that the male germ line (the line of cells that produce sperm) is subject to a combination of mutation and positive selection.
The scientists used a duplex sequencing technique called NanoSeq, which can detect rare mutations with a very low margin of error. This allowed them