How much do we know about spontaneous human mutation rates?

The much larger number of cell divisions between zygote and sperm than between zygote and egg, the increased age of fathers of children with new dominant mutations, and the greater evolution rate of pseudogenes on the Y chromosome than of those on autosomes all point to a much higher mutation rate in human males than in females, as first pointed out by Haldane [Ann Eugen 13:262–271, 1947] in his classical study of X‐linked hemophilia. The age of the father is the main factor determining the human spontaneous mutation rate, and probably the total mutation rate.

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