Has The "Gay Gene" Been Found in Female Mice?
Mice Rama (CC licensed)Tweaking a single gene in female mice has been found to change their sexual preference The sex habits of mice have long been an intriguing subject for scientists. Now, mouse sex just got a lot more interesting for the rest of us. A group of Korean geneticists has altered the sexual preferences of female mice by removing a single gene linked to reproductive behavior. Without the gene, the mice gravitated toward mice of the same sex. Those mice who retained the gene, called FucM, were attracted to male mice. (FucM is short for fucose mutarotase.) The geneticists' study, published last week in the journal BMC Genetics explains that female mice without FucM avoided male mice, declined to sniff male urine, and made passes at other females. Lead author Chankyu Park, of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, says this shows the absence...