Inheritance
Most chromosome abnormalities occur as an accident in the egg or sperm, and therefore the anomaly is present in every cell of the body. Some anomalies, however, can happen after conception, resulting in Mosaicism (where some cells have the anomaly and some do not). Chromosome anomalies can be inherited from a parent or be "de novo". This is why chromosome studies are often performed on parents when a child is found to have an anomaly. If the parents do not possess the abnormality it was not initially inherited; however it may be transmitted to subsequent generations.
Read more about this topic: Chromosome Abnormality
Famous quotes containing the word inheritance:
“As to honour—you know—it’s a very fine mediaeval inheritance which women never got hold of. It wasn’t theirs.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.”
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801)
“Late in the afternoon we passed a man on the shore fishing with a long birch pole.... The characteristics and pursuits of various ages and races of men are always existing in epitome in every neighborhood. The pleasures of my earliest youth have become the inheritance of other men. This man is still a fisher, and belongs to an era in which I myself have lived.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)