Homosexuality's "X" factor.Being gay could be all about your mother. New research suggests the genetics of mothers with multiple gay sons are different from those of other women, adding to the ongoing debate over the origins of homosexuality.The findings, released February 21, found that almost a quarter of mothers with more than one gay son in the study processed their X chromosomes X chromosome One of the two sex chromosomes (the other is Y) that determine a person's gender. Normal males have both an X and a Y chromosome, and normal females have two X chromosomes. in the same way. The research "confirms that there is a strong genetic basis for sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. and that for some gay men, genes on the X chromosome are involved," study coauthor Sven Bocklandt, a postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow (colloquially, a "post-doc") is a temporary research position held by a person who has completed his or her doctoral studies. Its roots go back to the medieval journeyman. at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. , told the HealthDay Reporter. But lonel Sandovici, MD, a genetics researcher at the Babraham Institute The Babraham Institute is an independent charitable life sciences institute undertaking research in basic cell and molecular biology. It is sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and is based in Babraham, Cambridgeshire, England. in Cambridge, England, was skeptical. The study was small, he said, and most of the mothers of multiple gay sons didn't share the unusual X-chromosome trait. The origins of sexual orientation remain "rather a complicated biological puzzle," Sandovici said in HealthDay Reporter. |
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