Opportunities for genetic errors during reproduction are so frequent that one wonders how any of us turn out healthy. Although many of these errors are inconsequential, and some can beneficially increase human diversity, germ-line mutations underlie risks for thousands of diseases. Genetic diseases, however, need not be inherited through the germ line: somatic mutations can arise in discrete cell lineages early in embryonic development or during postnatal life. The implications of somatic mutations are best known in the field of oncology. As predicted by Robert Weinberg two decades ago, and elegantly elucidated with regard to colon cancer by Bert Vogelstein, . . .
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Puck et al. (2004) studied this question.
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