Question

Blood samples were collected from 19,000 children of people who were within 2000 meters of the atomic blast in Nagasaki, Japan. Amino acid substitutions were investigated in 28 proteins and any variants detected led to an analysis of the child's parents' blood proteins to determine if the variant was an inherited or new mutation. Of the 289,868 genes examined, only one mutation was found in the children of parents exposed to the blast. None were found in the control group. This surprised the researchers, as animal studies clearly show that radiation causes mutations. In addition, the exposed parents did exhibit an increased incidence of leukemia and other types of cancers relative to unexposed people. These data suggest that _____.

Answer 1

Answer:

The mutations that were found in the parents were mostly somatic mutations

Explanation:

It has been mentioned in the question that leukemia was mainly found in the persons who were directly exposed to the radiation and it was absent in their children so this fact suggests that the mutations that were found in the parents were mostly somatic mutations and thus they are not transferred to the children from their parents. As these mutations were induced due to exposure of radiation so it was induced mutation. And such induced mutations do not get inherited to the offspring.