Researchers locate genes that predict homosexuality

jay gw

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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Genetic factors, along with cultural and early experiences, influence male homosexuality, Italian scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers at the University of Padua said the genetic components are linked to the X chromosome which is inherited only from the mother. But they are probably on other chromosomes and could partly explain male homosexuality.

"The key factor is that these genes both influence homosexuality in men, higher fecundity in females and are in the maternal and not the paternal line," Andrea Camperio-Ciani, who headed the research team, said in an interview.

The results are based on a study of 98 homosexual and 100 heterosexual men and about 4,600 of their relatives. The scientists compared the frequency of gay men on the maternal and paternal lines of the families.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/13/homosexuality.study.reut/index.html
 
Diogenes said:
Sounds like a good topic for the Religion & Philosophy forum as well. I'm sure that Satan put those genes there, contrary to God's wishes..
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Satan is one tricky devil
 
TruthSeeker said:
Satan is one tricky devil
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So is Yahoo's advertizing matching algorithm.

Interesting that the researchers mentioned "increased female fecundity" in the maternal line of the subjects. That would suggest why male homosexuality hasn't been entirely selected against - it involves a tradeoff between male and female reproductive success within a maternal line.
 
nd are usually started from some political, not completely scientific, premise.
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Meaning that homosexuality is not of scientific interest?

I disagree.
 
jay gw said:
Meaning that homosexuality is not of scientific interest?

I disagree.
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Sounds like you just made Third twin's point by putting words in his mouth...

He said: "... and are usually started from some political, not completely scientific, premise."

How do you get ...

" Homosexuality is not of scientific interest. "

... out of that?
 
Also, please note that I said "and" and not "or", in that these problems are inclusive.

I think "understanding" homosexuality is of great scientific interest. But, I also believe that the few good studies done to date have not been completely free from all of the biases I mention. They start with homosexual "probands" and do searches in families in an attempt to trace back what they identify as supposed "marker" genes. It would be much more compelling if they were able to demonstrate that, in the general population, these "marker" genes uniformly predicted homosexuality. No study to date has been thusly controlled, and attempts to reproduce such studies has not proven fruitful.

-TT
 
It would be much more compelling if they were able to demonstrate that, in the general population, these "marker" genes uniformly predicted homosexuality.
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I'm going to be a smartass here:

In other words, they would have to first identify the marker genes, from looking at families with gays.

um.....
 
"Researchers locate genes that predict homosexuality"
Wouldn't genes that predict the lottery be more useful?

Seriously, though, if there is a trade-off between male and female reproductive success, wouldn't we expect to see this gene associated with a gene that increases the probability of having female children, to take advantage of the advantageous side of the trade-off? And if it is possible for a gene to be switched off by a Y chromosome or high testosteron, wouldn't it be likely that the gene do that?
 
jay gw said:
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Genetic factors, along with cultural and early experiences, influence male homosexuality, Italian scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers at the University of Padua said the genetic components are linked to the X chromosome which is inherited only from the mother. But they are probably on other chromosomes and could partly explain male homosexuality.

"The key factor is that these genes both influence homosexuality in men, higher fecundity in females and are in the maternal and not the paternal line," Andrea Camperio-Ciani, who headed the research team, said in an interview.
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First a disclaimer: I am not a biologist. But I follow this stuff as closely as I can because I find it to be fascinating. But this announcement leaves me cold. Read the first sentence closely. It says that genetics and environment influence sexuality.

Well, duh! What else is there - the gravitational influence of Pluto?

Then read this sentence with care: "But they are probably on other chromosomes and could partly explain male homosexuality." The words "probably", "could", "partly" reduce this sentence to gibberish.

What is really new here? I am not asking rhetorically. I don't get it and would really like to know.
 
Well if they didn't try to put it in scientific terms then they'd have to admit that they're just a bunch of nerdy scientists who want to get paid a research grant to hang out with cool gay guys.
 
The Don said:
Well if they didn't try to put it in scientific terms then they'd have to admit that they're just a bunch of nerdy scientists who want to get paid a research grant to hang out with cool gay guys.
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Not likely. If that were the case, they would have done the study with lesbians.

"We need to observe your actions very closely. That includes keeping a web feed in your bedroom and the occasional live viewin^H^H^H visits."
 
jay gw said:
I'm going to be a smartass here:

In other words, they would have to first identify the marker genes, from looking at families with gays.

um.....
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No, that's not specifically what I object to. It's this:

"The key factor is that these genes both influence homosexuality in men, higher fecundity in females and are in the maternal and not the paternal line," Andrea Camperio-Ciani, who headed the research team, said in an interview.
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This seems to be a pretty definitive conclusion that has not been corroborated in the population at large.

That's all... for now.

-TT
 
quote:
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"The key factor is that these genes both influence homosexuality in men, higher fecundity in females and are in the maternal and not the paternal line," Andrea Camperio-Ciani, who headed the research team, said in an interview.

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Let's use a little common sense here. Do we know how to spell estrogen? In all the well documented exposures of wildlife to estrogen mimicking substances liberated into the environment (e.g. any number of pestcides) they found males feminized and females with supersized ovaries and multiple liberated ova production. (search term: estrogen mimicks & phyto-estrogens).

Is it so unreasonable to assume that developing fetuses (and future homosexuals) may've been exposed to either phyto estrogens or estrogen mimicks from a wide variety of sources including quite possibly their mother's own milk, their bottled milk, their baby food or the mom's diet or exposures while carrying them in utero?

Phyto estrogen exposure as well as genes coding for unregulated estrogen production might also explain the documented ocurrence of voluntarily or non-coercive homosexuality going back several thousand years.

Like that TV and magazine ad now running about where we get too much cholesterol from: diet and inheritance, it is likely that the same is true of homosexuality only it is environmental (including phyto-) estrogen exposure, and diet and inheritance or maybe simply only the former one, two or all three.
 
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