Low level mosaicism for a balanced 7;14 translocation in the father of an abnormal 7q+ child.

A child with a 7q+ chromosome abnormality had a father with 0.5% mosaicism for a balanced 7;14 translocation. This mosaicism was not found in 100 fibroblasts. This degree of mosaicism is well below the limits usually detected by standard clinical cytogenetic protocols. However, the one abnormal cell cannot be disregarded in this case, since it can serve as an explanation of the child's genotype. This case serves to illustrate the need for detecting subtle degrees of mosaicism for structural anomalies in humans and brings to question the true population frequencies of mosaic balanced translocation carriers.