title: Sex biases in the mutation rate.
abstract: Men have more germ-line cell divisions than women. Does this lead to a higher mutation rate in males? Most estimates of the proportion of mutations originating in men come either from direct observation of disease-inducing mutations or from analysis of the relative rate of evolution of sex-linked and autosomal genes in primates. The latter mode of analysis has also been applied to other mammals, birds and files. For unknown reasons, this method produces contradictory results. A majority of estimates using the best direct methods in humans indicate a male bias for point mutations, but the variance in estimates is high. It is unclear how the evolutionary and direct data correspond and a consensus as to the extent of any male bias is not presently possible. While the number of germ-line cell divisions might contribute to differences, this by no means accounts for all of the data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, UK. l.d.burst@bath.ac.uk
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Hurst
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ellegren
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D005799:Genes, Dominant; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D012737:Sex Factors