Were there queers in gay gene research

A massive study of half a million people finds no single gene behind sexual orientation, adding more evidence that there is no “gay gene”. Researchers examined DNA data from more thanparticipants in the U. Biobank and more than 69, people who had their DNA tested by the consumer testing company 23andMe.

The other two influence sex partner choice for both men and women. One mystery the discovery may help solve is how genetic variants associated with having same-sex partners could persist across generations. More than 20 years ago, in a study that triggered both scientific and cultural controversy, the molecular biologist offered the first direct evidence of a "gay gene," by identifying a stretch on the X chromosome likely associated with homosexuality.

Retiring the Single Gay

Dean Hamer finally feels vindicated. The results are consistent with previous studies suggesting genetics may play a bigger role in influencing male sexuality than female sexuality. But several subsequent studies called his finding into question.

The findings were replicated with data from three other studies, including one from Sweden. But Ganna and colleagues found no evidence that the X chromosome is involved in partner choice, he said. Those genetic tweaks don’t predict who is likely to be gay.

For humans, male sexuality may be more tightly linked to genes. In the U. Biobank dataset, for example, younger people reported having same-sex partners more often than older people did, probably because homosexual activity was illegal in the United Kingdom until This is not the only complex human phenomenon for which we see a genetic influence without a great understanding of how that influence works.

October 20, at am - More than 2 years ago. “GAY GENES” New research has uncovered DNA differences linked to same-sex sexuality in both men and women. People who offer to participate in a study, without being randomly selected, may not reflect the general population, he says.

Instead, the researchers found genetic variants known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, located on four other chromosomes. Findings from such large studies are more likely to be replicated than the small studies in the past, Bailey says.

For instance, a variant on chromosome 15 linked to men having sex with men is also associated with male pattern baldness. Now the largest independent replication. That’s the first thing you need to know about the largest genetic investigation of sexuality ever, which was published.

I argue that the complexity of both genetics and human sexuality demands a truly critical approach: one that takes into account feminist epistemologies of science and queer approaches to the body, while putting into. Another variant in the study is near the ORA51A gene on chromosome 11, which is involved in the ability to smell certain chemicals.

In a large study of more thanmen and women in the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden, researchers discovered four genetic variants that occur more often in people who indicated on questionnaires that they had had same-sex sexual partners.

Men in the new study who said they have had same-sex partners, tended to be more exclusively homosexual than women were, Ganna and colleagues found. But people of both sexes ran the gamut of sexual orientations. People who have given their DNA data to those research projects also answered a battery of questions, including ones about whether they had ever had a partner of the same sex and how many sexual partners they have had.

Previous sexual orientation genetic studies, including some Bailey was involved in, may also have suffered from bias because they relied on volunteers. In the new study, the more exclusively homosexual partners men had, the fewer children they had; up to 80 percent fewer children than heterosexual men.

There is no single gene responsible for a person being gay or a lesbian.

Massive Study Finds No

This is the first DNA difference ever linked to female sexual orientation, says Lisa Diamond, a psychologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who studies the nature and development of same-sex sexuality. Abstract What are ‘gay genes’ and are they real?

This article looks at key research into these hypothesized gay genes, made possible, in part, by the Human Genome Project. Collectively, the DNA differences explained only 8 to 12 percent of the heritability of having same-sex partners.

By Tina Hesman Saey.