The illnesses of Charles Darwin and his children: a lesson in consanguinity
| Autor: | Tim M. Berra, Francisco C. Ceballos, Gonzalo Alvarez, John A. Hayman |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
media_common.quotation_subject Grandparent Consanguinity Biology humanities Genealogy 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology Charles darwin Darwin (ADL) Mutation (genetic algorithm) behavior and behavior mechanisms Wife Inbreeding Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Mitochondrial mutation media_common |
| Zdroj: | Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 121:458-468 |
| ISSN: | 1095-8312 0024-4066 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/biolinnean/blw041 |
| Popis: | Charles Darwin's lifetime illness with its many disabling symptoms may be explained by an inherited pathological mtDNA mutation. Although such a diagnosis explains Darwin's illness and the strange illnesses that afflicted his Wedgwood maternal forebears, it does not explain the illnesses that affected Darwin's children. The sicknesses of the children were very different from those of the father and also different from each other. Although not directly inherited from their father, these illnesses may have been due, at least in part, to inbreeding since they were the inbred progeny from a consanguineous couple (Darwin and his wife were first cousins), a condition known to enhance susceptibility to recessive genetic disorders and infectious diseases. Darwin's inherited illness may be traced back through three, perhaps four maternal generations. Consanguinity was present in the marriage of Darwin's maternal grandparents, but the purported mitochondrial mutation appears to have been present prior to this union. The origin of any mutation appears lost in the mist of unrecorded history. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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