Epigenetic homosexuality
Can Epigenetics Explain Homosexuality?
WIKIMEDIA, theodoranian.Researchers looking for a genetic signature of homosexuality own been barking up the wrong tree, according to a trio of researchers in the United States and Sweden. Instead, the scientists posit, epigenetic influences acting on androgen signaling in the brain may underlie sexual orientation. In a paper published last week (December 11) in The Quarterly Review of Biology, they propose a model describing how epigenetic markers that steer sexual development in males could promote homosexual orientation in females, and vice versa. The scientists offer their model to explain both the tendency of homosexuality to run in families, and the fact that so far no “homosexual gene” has been identified.
“It’s a very provocative, very interesting new twist that is plausible,” said Margaret McCarthy, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland who studies how hormones influence brain progress and was not committed in producing the model. But, she cautioned, so far the theory “is not supported by any data.”
Indeed, Andrea Ciani, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Padova, thinks that a variety of factors,
Gene Regulation May Explain How Homosexuality Flourishes
The search for a "gay gene" may be off-target, new analyze finds. Another process called epigenetics that switches genes on and off may explain why homosexuality runs in families.
Epigenetics are heritable changes caused by factors other than DNA. Instead of traits getting passed down through the genes, epigenetic change happens because of the way genes are regulated, or turned on and off.
These genetic regulators may be the reason homosexuality persists in nature despite the proof that gay people are less likely to create, suggests the new investigation published in the journal The Quarterly Review of Biology.
You may appreciate"These things have evolved because they're good for the parents, but they sometimes, not [with] elevated frequency, but sometimes haul over" into offspring, learn researcher William Rice, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told LiveScience. In a male fetus, Rice and his colleagues note, an epigenetic change that benefited the mother may lead to "feminization" of sexual preference — homo- or bisexuality. The identical may be true for epigenetic changes passed down b
Is homosexuality genetic? It’s a long-running debate.
Now researchers at UT say they’ve launch a clue that may unlock the mystery. It lies in something called epi-genetics—how gene expression is regulated by temporary switches.
A working group at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), based at UT, used mathematical modeling that establish the transmission of sex-specific epi-marks may signal homosexuality.
According to the study, published online today in The Quarterly Review of Biology, sex-specific epi-marks, which are “erased” and thus normally do not pass between generations, can lead to homosexuality when they flee erasure and are transmitted from father to daughter or mother to son.
“Previous studies have shown that homosexuality runs in families, leading most researchers to presume a genetic underpinning of sexual preference,” said Sergey Gavrilets, paper co-author, joint professor of math and ecology and evolutionary biology and NIMBioS’s associate director for scientific activities. “However, no major gene for homosexuality has been found despite numerous studies searching for a gene
Study Finds Epigenetics, Not Genetics, Underlies Homosexuality
11 December 2012
KNOXVILLE – Epigenetics - how gene phrase is regulated by temporary switches, called epi-marks - appears to be a critical and overlooked factor contributing to the long-standing puzzle of why homosexuality occurs.
According to the study, published online today in The Quarterly Review of Biology, sex-specific epi-marks, which normally carry out not pass between generations and are thus "erased," can lead to homosexuality when they escape erasure and are transmitted from father to daughter or mother to son.
From an evolutionary standpoint, homosexuality is a trait that would not be expected to develop and persist in the meet of Darwinian natural selection. Homosexuality is nevertheless shared for men and women in most cultures. Previous studies have shown that homosexuality runs in families, leading most researchers to presume a genetic underpinning of sexual preference. However, no major gene for homosexuality has been create despite numerous studies searching for a genetic connection.
In the current study, researchers from the Working Group on Intragenomic Conflict at the Natio
.