Sunday, May 24, 2009

Genetic speed dating

I think couples genetic counseling should include a phylogenetic tree where the lineages can be spread as much as possible. Imagine that?! It turns out, we are driven by pheromones after all and it is genetically determined ..

"Preferences for mates that possess genes dissimilar to one's own at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a polymorphic group of loci associated with the immune system, have been found in mice, birds, fish, and humans. These preferences may help individuals choose genetically compatible mates and may adaptively function to prevent inbreeding or to increase heterozygosity and thereby immunocompetence of offspring. MHC-dissimilar mate preferences may influence the psychology of sexual attraction. We investigated whether MHC similarity among romantically involved couples (N= 48) predicted aspects of their sexual relationship. All women in our sample normally ovulated, and alleles at three MHC loci were typed for each person. As the proportion of MHC alleles couples shared increased, women's sexual responsivity to their partners decreased, their number of extrapair sexual partners increased, and their attraction to men other than their primary partners increased, particularly during the fertile phase of their cycles."

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118597273/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

6 comments:

Moneo said...

day by day i try to read it again and again trying to understand..

Anonymous said...

still not understanding,does it means she stoped writting for a while..

i lost it too..

Anonymous said...

This is an interesting post. This is thought-provoking too! Thank you.

This is Joshua from Israeli Uncensored News

Zee said...

... tell me when you are in your "fertile cycle" before I make reservations. Timing is everything in life.

Lirun said...

nice - im keen to marry a dolphin

Zee said...

Well, a happy new year to you, and blessings and peace for the new decade!