The following is an edited excerpt.
New mutations that are absent in parents but appear in their children account for at least 10 percent of severe congenital heart disease, a new study reveals.
The analysis of all the genes of more than 1800 individuals found hundreds of mutations that can cause congenital heart disease, the most common form of birth defect that afflicts nearly 1 percent of all newborns.
In particular, the study found frequent mutations in genes that modify histones, proteins that package DNA in the nucleus and orchestrate the timing and activation of genes crucial to development of the fetus.
Read the original story in its entirety here: Not all congenital heart disease is inherited
