Fertility inheritance, a phenomenon in which an individual's number of offspring is positively correlated with his or her number of siblings, is a cultural process that can have a strong impact on genetic diversity. Until now, fertility inheritance has been detected primarily using genealogical databases. In this study, we develop a new method to infer fertility inheritance from genetic data in...

During the mid-nineteenth century, Johann Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants to develop a theory of inheritance. In 1843, while a monk in the Augustian St Thomas?s Abbey in Brünn, Austria, now Brno, Czech Repubic, Mendel examined the physical appearance of the abbey?s pea plants ( Pisum sativum [4]) and noted inconsistencies between what he saw and what the blending theory of inheritanc...

It was first recognised in 1833 that there was an inherited predisposition to Dupuytren’s Disease, before DNA and genes were discovered (1). Since then, hand surgeons have continued to be fascinated by the nature and extent of this predisposition. As epidemiological methodology and molecular genetic techniques have developed, our understanding has advanced, such that the design of novel therape...