AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Do Parents Pass Gene Mutations to Children? If a parent carries a gene mutation in their egg or sperm, it can pass to their child. These hereditary (or inherited) mutations are in almost every cell of the person’s body throughout their life.

Detailed explanation-2: -Some mutations are hereditary because they are passed down to an offspring from a parent carrying a mutation through the germ line, meaning through an egg or sperm cell carrying the mutation. There are also nonhereditary mutations that occur in cells outside of the germ line, which are called somatic mutations.

Detailed explanation-3: -Can I inherit a mutation? You can inherit germline genetic mutations. In this type of mutation, the DNA change happens in reproductive cells (egg or sperm). The sperm and egg pass from parents to their children, so the mutation is inherited.

Detailed explanation-4: -One copy is inherited from their mother (via the egg) and the other from their father (via the sperm). A sperm and an egg each contain one set of 23 chromosomes. When the sperm fertilises the egg, two copies of each chromosome are present (and therefore two copies of each gene), and so an embryo forms.