An evolutionary perspective on homosexuality: Testing the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis through familial fertility analysis

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10499187" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10499187 - isvavai.cz</a>

Nalezeny alternativní kódy

RIV/00216208:11310/25:10499187

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=jKu8k8pGzb" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=jKu8k8pGzb</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106649" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106649</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

An evolutionary perspective on homosexuality: Testing the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis through familial fertility analysis

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

There is robust evidence to the effect that homosexual individuals have systematically less offspring. The sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis claims that this fitness-related disadvantage of homosexual individuals is compensated by their other-sex relatives exhibiting greater fertility than the relatives of straight individuals. It would allow explain how genetic variants associated with homosexuality persist in the human population. Nevertheless, previous studies yielded conflicting results and, moreover, they focused almost solely on the fertility of gay men&apos;s relatives. We present the results of a large preregistered study based on data on fertility of both gay men&apos;s and lesbian women&apos;s relatives. We have analyzed the fertility and biological kin fertility of 693 gay men, 843 straight men, 265 lesbian women, and 331 straight women from Czechia and Slovakia. As expected, gay men and lesbian women sired significantly less offspring than straight individuals. However, we also found no evidence supporting the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis, i.e., no difference between the fertility of other-sex relatives of homosexual and heterosexual individuals. Interestingly, though, paternal grandparents of gay men had more offspring than the paternal grandparents of straight men did. The mothers of lesbian women had a higher fertility than the mothers of straight women, but that could be attributed to intervening effects, such as the excess of older brothers in homosexual individuals. Our results suggest that mechanisms other than those predicted by the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis are involved in the evolution of human homosexual orientation.

Název v anglickém jazyce

An evolutionary perspective on homosexuality: Testing the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis through familial fertility analysis

Popis výsledku anglicky

There is robust evidence to the effect that homosexual individuals have systematically less offspring. The sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis claims that this fitness-related disadvantage of homosexual individuals is compensated by their other-sex relatives exhibiting greater fertility than the relatives of straight individuals. It would allow explain how genetic variants associated with homosexuality persist in the human population. Nevertheless, previous studies yielded conflicting results and, moreover, they focused almost solely on the fertility of gay men&apos;s relatives. We present the results of a large preregistered study based on data on fertility of both gay men&apos;s and lesbian women&apos;s relatives. We have analyzed the fertility and biological kin fertility of 693 gay men, 843 straight men, 265 lesbian women, and 331 straight women from Czechia and Slovakia. As expected, gay men and lesbian women sired significantly less offspring than straight individuals. However, we also found no evidence supporting the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis, i.e., no difference between the fertility of other-sex relatives of homosexual and heterosexual individuals. Interestingly, though, paternal grandparents of gay men had more offspring than the paternal grandparents of straight men did. The mothers of lesbian women had a higher fertility than the mothers of straight women, but that could be attributed to intervening effects, such as the excess of older brothers in homosexual individuals. Our results suggest that mechanisms other than those predicted by the sexually antagonistic genes hypothesis are involved in the evolution of human homosexual orientation.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Evolution and Human Behavior

ISSN

1090-5138

e-ISSN

1879-0607

Svazek periodika

46

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

1

Stát vydavatele periodika

US - Spojené státy americké

Počet stran výsledku

9

Strana od-do

106649

Kód UT WoS článku

001400300600001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85213266283