Mutations are considered bad.
- only about 24 mitotic divisions occur from the fertilized egg that starts a little girl's embryonic development and the setting aside of her future eggs (which is done long before she is even born). No matter what the age of the mother, she transmits only about 15 new mutations to her offspring.
- The sperm of a man, in contrast, are the descendants of at least 400 mitotic divisions since the fertilized egg that formed him. A man continues to add one to two new mutations every year.
So,
A 25 year old man contributes ~25 times more mutations than the mother (mother's age does not matter) to the baby.
A 40 year old man contributes ~30 times more mutations than the mother (mother's age does not matter) to the baby.
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