Mosaic (genetics)
Condition in multi-cellular organisms / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mosaicism or genetic mosaicism is a condition in which a multicellular organism possesses more than one genetic line as the result of genetic mutation.[1][2] This means that various genetic lines resulted from a single fertilized egg. Mosaicism is one of several possible causes of chimerism, wherein a single organism is composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype.
Genetic mosaicism can result from many different mechanisms including chromosome nondisjunction, anaphase lag, and endoreplication.[3] Anaphase lagging is the most common way by which mosaicism arises in the preimplantation embryo.[3] Mosaicism can also result from a mutation in one cell during development, in which case the mutation will be passed on only to its daughter cells (and will be present only in certain adult cells).[4] Somatic mosaicism is not generally inheritable as it does not generally affect germ cells.[2]