Effect of maternal folate levels on somatic mutation frequency in the developing colon
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 28, 2026

Modifying Levels of Maternal Dietary Folic Acid or Choline to Study the Impact of Deficiencies on Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
G A Trentin1, J Moody, J A Heddle
1Department of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
Folic acid deficiency is associated with an increase in chromosomal aberrations in adult rodents and humans. Somatic mutations have a critical role in carcinogenesis. Since most mutations arise during early development, the effect of maternal folic acid levels on the spontaneous mutant frequency in the developing colon was examined using lacZ transgenic mice. No significant difference in mutant frequencies at both 3 and 8 weeks of age were found between offspring whose mothers were fed low folate and those on high folate diets during pregnancy. Our results suggest that the correlation between folic acid intake and cancer risk may only be effective at extreme folate deficiencies or in combination with other dietary deficiencies or an underlying predisposition.
Related Concept Videos
Mismatch Repair
The Mutator Protein Family Plays a Key Role in DNA Mismatch Repair
The human genome has more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA per cell. Prior to cell division, that vast amount of genetic...
Mismatch Repair
Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell
Nondisjunction
Meiosis vs. Mitosis
Before the start of mitosis and meiosis I, the cell synthesizes DNA, resulting in two homologous copies of each chromosome. DNA synthesis is...
Spontaneous and Induced Mutations

