More tantalizing is the observation that, in individuals who are either healthy or have minor cytopenias without definite evidence of MDS, next-generation sequencing has shown the presence of MDS-related mutations in genes including ASXL1, TP53, BCORL1, GNAS, SF3B1, DNMT3A, TET2, and JAK2. The frequency of detecting these mutations increases with age, being very rare in people <40 years old, but present in about 10% of people aged 70 to 79 years, and reaching 18% in people >90 years old. Here, TP53 is linked to myelodysplastic syndrome.