Is there really a gay gene

Sexuality is just complex, study confirms. There is no single gene responsible for a person being gay or a lesbian. That’s the first thing you need to know about the largest genetic investigation. As University of Toronto (Canada) psychologist Doug VanderLaan and his colleagues explain in an article they recently published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, science now clearly shows.

No individual gene alone makes a person gay, lesbian or bisexual; instead, thousands of genes likely influence sexual orientation, a massive new study of the genomes of nearly half a.

Is homosexuality genetic or psychological

Controversial results released in suggested a genetic link between bisexuality and risk-taking, but many researchers found flaws in the methodology. Few aspects of human biology are as. “There is no ‘gay gene’ that determines whether someone has same-sex partners,” says Andrea Ganna, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the University of Helsinki. Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain how homosexuality can be beneficial in perpetuating familial genes.

Two of these genetic markers sit close to genes linked to sex hormones and to smell—both factors that may play a role in sexual attraction. Broadly, tops are the penetrative partner in anal sex, while bottoms are the receptive partner. References VanderLaan, D. Expressed in the brain, TRPC2 functions in the recognition of pheromones, chemicals that are released by one member of a species to elicit a response in another.

August 29, 4 min read. We know there are non-genetic influences as well, but we don't understand these well, and our study does not say anything about them. He sees the new paper as an analysis of risky behavior or openness to experience, noting that participants who engaged in at least one same-sex experience were also more likely to report having smoked marijuana and having more sexual partners overall.

Back Psychology Today. Later-born males are more likely than first-borns to be gay, but only as bottoms, not as tops. In what is known as the fraternal birth order effect, first-born males are less likely to exhibit a same-sex orientation than males who are born after an older brother. The data also point to a similar pattern in women. The handful of genetic studies conducted in the past few decades have looked at only a few hundred individuals at most—and almost exclusively men.

July Other studies have shown that disruption of a gene called TRPC2 can cause female mice to act like males. Each of them individually has a very small effect, but together they have a substantial effect. Other factors, such as gendered social norms regarding the number of sexual partners females should have, could make women less comfortable accurately reporting their sexual behavior.

In other words, certain factors lead some individuals to be attracted to males and others to females, regardless of whether they themselves are male or female. However, some of the genetic variants identified in the massive study "could hint at some biological pathways that may be involved in same-sex sexual behavior," Ganna said. Male mice lacking TRPC2 no longer display male-male aggression, and they initiate sexual behaviors toward both males and females.

I am a molecular biologist and am interested in this new study as it further illuminates the genetic contribution to human behavior.

The data also came primarily from older individuals, who mostly lived under stricter social norms and legislative regulations than today's. That's also the case for many other human traits, such as height. They asked more than , participants whether they had ever had sex with someone of the same sex, and also questions about sexual fantasies and the degree to which they identified as gay or straight.

That, in turn, could skew the results. Same-sex orientation remains criminalized in more than 70 countries, some with the death penalty, often stifling those willing to disclose such personal information. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing.

Rice and Vilain agree that the conclusion is unclear. Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today. The researchers found five single points in the genome that seemed to be common among people who had had at least one same-sex experience.