The origin of human triploids

Abstract

The data using a maximum-likelihood method was that 66.4 yo of the triploids were the result of dispermy, 23.6 % the result of fertilization of a haploid ovum by a diploid sperm formed by failure of the first meiotic division in the male and 10 % the result of a diploid egg formed by failure of the first maternal meiotic division. The possible sources of error inherent in the technique me reviewed and our results compared with previously published data. This work was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, by grant no. 6–47 from the National Foundation and by grant no. HD 07879 from the National Institutes of Health. We are extremely grateful to Miss Shirley Yee of the Population Genetics Laboratory, University of Hawaii, for providing the maximum- likelihood estimates, and we thank Dr Kobara and the staff of the Pathology Department, the nursing staff of Kapiolani Hospital and Dr Julia Tsuei of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology without whose help in collecting the specimens the present study would have been impossible.