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Old 03-10-2004, 07:53 PM   #3236
Not Me
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Heterozygous advantage

Another potential evolutionary biological explanation for homosexuality is that the heteozygous state has a survival advantage. For instance, to phenotypically express homosexuality, the individual must be genotypically homozygous for the genetic determinants. Individuals who are heterozygous are phenotypically heterosexuals but have some sort of reproductive advantage over those who have no copies of the genetic determinants of homosexuality.

This would be like sickle cell, whch is a homozygous recessive disease. Certainly being homozygous for the trait is deterimental to your ability to reproduce. Yet these genes remain in our gene pool at a relatively high frequency for deleterious traits.

Usually when that is the case, there is a survival advantage for the heterozygous state. That accounts for the relatively high frequency of the deleterious gene. With sickle cell, the heterozygous state is more resistent to malarial infections and that conferred the survival advantage that keeps the gene in the gene pool in those populations at risk for malaria.

There may be some reproductive advantage to being heterozygous for the genetic determinants of homosexuality. Maybe those people are who are heterozygous are better able to relate to the opposite sex. Maybe a male who is heterozygous is a more nurturing father.
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Last edited by Not Me; 03-10-2004 at 07:58 PM..
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