Older fathers’ children have lower evolutionary fitness across four centuries and in four populations

Arslan, Ruben C., Willführ, Kai P., Frans, Emma M., Verweij, Karin J. H., Bürkner, Paul-Christian, Myrskylä, Mikko, Voland, Eckart, Almqvist, Catarina, Zietsch, Brendan P. and Penke, Lars (2017) Older fathers’ children have lower evolutionary fitness across four centuries and in four populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284 (1862). ISSN 0962-8452

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Abstract

Higher paternal age at offspring conception increases de novo genetic mutations. Based on evolutionary genetic theory we predicted older fathers’ children, all else equal, would be less likely to survive and reproduce, i.e. have lower fitness. In sibling control studies, we find support for negative paternal age effects on offspring survival and reproductive success across four large populations with an aggregate N > 1.4 million. Three populations were pre-industrial (1670-1850) Western populations and showed negative paternal age effects on infant survival and offspring reproductive success. In 20th-century Sweden, we found minuscule paternal age effects on survival, but found negative effects on reproductive success. Effects survived tests for key competing explanations, including maternal age and parental loss, but effects varied widely over different plausible model specifications and some competing explanations such as diminishing paternal investment and epigenetic mutations could not be tested. We can use our findings to aid in predicting the effect increasingly older parents in today’s society will have on their children’s survival and reproductive success. To the extent that we succeeded in isolating a mutation-driven effect of paternal age, our results can be understood to show that de novo mutations reduce offspring fitness across populations and time periods.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Authors
Divisions:	Social Policy
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Date Deposited:	24 Aug 2017 13:44
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 01:32
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/84117

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