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Article: Genetic clue to male homosexuality emerges.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- July 17, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Researchers say they have taken a major stride toward identifying a gene that may importantly influence the development of some cases of male homosexuality. The new evidence, published in the July 16 SCIENCE, suggests that a gene lying within a small stretch of the X chromosome, inherited by men from their mothers, contributes to the sexual orientation of a subset of homosexual men.
"We haven't identified the gene yet, and any theory of how it works is speculative," asserts Dean H. Hamer, a geneticist at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. who directed the study,
However, a gene wedged into a tiny segment of DNA -- containing perhaps as few ...