Parent-of-Origin Effects in Childhood Asthma at Seven Years of Age.

Summary: Kids are more likely to get asthma if their mom has it, rather than their dad. Scientists wanted to know why this happens, so they looked at the DNA of over 1,600 children with asthma and their parents. They found a specific piece of DNA—a gene called ADSS2—that acts differently depending on which parent it comes from. If a child inherits a certain version of this gene from their mother, their risk for asthma goes up much more than if they get the exact same gene from their father. This discovery helps explain why a mother's asthma has a much bigger impact on her child's health.