In evolutionary terms, homosexuality might be a detrimental trait that stops people from passing on their genes. But population geneticists have successfully modelled several theoretical explanations for its maintenance. A trio in Italy has now come up with a simple model that involves just two genes.
At least one of these genes, say the University of Padua's Andrea Camperio Ciani and his co-workers, must be on the X chromosome and act to increase fitness when expressed in females. These conditions produce a population within which a small proportion of individuals is gay and in which this proportion remains stable over time.
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Evolution: Model lives. Nature 453, 1146 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4531146c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4531146c