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Author Topic:   On the causes of sexual orientation
Coragyps
Member (Idle past 734 days)
Posts: 5553
From: Snyder, Texas, USA
Joined: 11-12-2002


Message 22 of 108 (471942)
06-19-2008 11:25 AM
Reply to: Message 19 by dwise1
06-19-2008 2:11 AM


Re: What about pheromones?
Why couldn't homosexuality be due in part -- perhaps in large part -- to a response to pheromones?
It most assuredly is in Drosophila melanogaster aka the common fruit fly. There is a mutant where the males only sniff out other males and try to mate with them. If work weren't so busy right now I'd go find a link....

"The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of foolishness; things are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one ever could aforetime induce the heathen to believe." - Agobard of Lyons, ca. 830 AD

This message is a reply to:
 Message 19 by dwise1, posted 06-19-2008 2:11 AM dwise1 has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 27 by Fosdick, posted 06-19-2008 1:57 PM Coragyps has replied

  
Coragyps
Member (Idle past 734 days)
Posts: 5553
From: Snyder, Texas, USA
Joined: 11-12-2002


Message 32 of 108 (471979)
06-19-2008 2:37 PM
Reply to: Message 27 by Fosdick
06-19-2008 1:57 PM


Re: What about pheromones?
References to gay/lesbian fruit flies:
Nature 436, 334-335 (21 July 2005) -
By forcing males to express the female-specific fruF transcript, Demir and Dickson produced males that showed the characteristics of the worst-affected fru mutants. These males were sterile, they barely courted females and they were more interested in courting males, forming courtship chains. By contrast, females jammed into fruM mode mated poorly, produced very few eggs, but ” astonishingly ” courted other females (Fig. 2), even to the point of forming chains. And an identity crisis of similar epic proportions was observed in females that were 'masculinized' using a different fru-related genetic trick. Finally, by feminizing specific abdominal glands in males to produce female pheromones, and placing the altered males with fruM females, the sex roles were reversed, so that the females courted the males.
Nature 446, 502-504 (29 March 2007):
Physiological recordings in an air-flow assay revealed equally robust responses of T1 sensilla to cVA in both sexes, suggesting that cVA has a function in the sexual response of both males and females. Indeed, they observed that male Or67dGAL4 mutants court virgin females normally, but when paired with other males, their behaviour was significantly more homosexual than that of normal flies, exposing again the inhibitory effect of cVA, but this time on male-male interactions.
Nature makes you pay for articles, but my paper subscription covers that. Email me if you want a pdf to read.
And remember, green eyes and adult lactose tolerance are the results of mutations, too.
Edited by Coragyps, : add snark

"The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of foolishness; things are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one ever could aforetime induce the heathen to believe." - Agobard of Lyons, ca. 830 AD

This message is a reply to:
 Message 27 by Fosdick, posted 06-19-2008 1:57 PM Fosdick has replied

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