Study authors also found that fathers today are deciding to have children at a much older age.
“Collecting the sperm of young adult men and cold-storing it for later use could be a wise individual decision,” said Alexey Kondrashov of the University of Michigan.
Some mutation experts believe that the age of the father is not necessarily the primary factor.
“The observed effect is a significant one, but not one necessarily to cause great worry among prospective older fathers,” said Darren Griffin, a professor of genetics at University of Kent.
“There are three billion of letters in the DNA code of humans and the numbers of mutations detected in this study are in the dozens…and not realistically likely to deter more mature fathers from having children.”
