Alex Cagan

As somatic evolution becomes directly measurable, integrating eco-evolutionary principles with high-resolution molecular data creates opportunities to anticipate and prevent disease. You have full access to this article via your institution. High-resolution sequencing has revealed the ubiquitous nature of somatic evolution, and transformed our view of human tissues from static structures into dynamic, evolving landscapes.

Abstract Mutations that occur in the cell lineages of sperm or eggs can be transmitted to offspring. In humans, positive selection of driver mutations during spermatogenesis can increase the birth prevalence of certain developmental disorders1,2,3. Until recently, characterizing the extent of this selection in sperm has been limited by the error rates of sequencing technologies. Here we used the duplex sequencing method NanoSeq4 to sequence 81 bulk sperm samples from individuals aged 24–75 years.