The biology of being gay

• Autores: Andy Coghlan
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3156, 2017, pág. 8
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • People are homing in on the pathways that shape sexual orientation--in men, at least. The latest findings reveal genes and antibodies that seem to be part of the complex biology behind homosexuality. Studies of sexuality have largely tended to focus on men, and for decades there has been evidence that sexual orientation is partly heritable in men. Genetic variations in regions of the X chromosome and chromosome 8 were linked to homosexuality in the mid-1990s, but no specific genes had been found. There was also no explanation for why men are more likely to be gay if they have older brothers, known as the "fraternal birth order effect". Alan Sanders at Northshore University IL and his colleagues compared DNA from 1077 gay and 1231 straight men. Scanning the men's entire genomes, the team spotted two genes whose variants seem to be linked to sexual orientation.