Chinese scientists turn mice 'gay'.

[Halororor]

Male mice bred without serotonin lose their preference for females, a report in Nature says.

 

The researchers say it is the first time that a neurotransmitter has been shown to play a role in sexual preference in mammals.

 

Experts have warned about the dangers of drawing conclusions about human sexuality.

 

The research team first bred male mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin.

 

A series of experiments demonstrated that these mice had lost the preference for females shown by unmodified males.

 

When presented with a choice of partners, they showed no overall preference for either males or females.

Continue reading the main story

 

When just a male was introduced into the cage, the modified males were far more likely to mount the male and emit a "mating call" normally given off when encountering females than unmodified males were.

 

Similar results were achieved when a different set of mice were bred. These lacked the tryptonphan hydroxylase 2 gene, which is needed to produce serotonin.

 

However, a preference for females could be "restored" by injecting serotonin into the brain.

 

The report concludes: "Serotonergic signalling is crucial for male sexual preference in mice. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a neurotransmitter in the brain has been demonstrated to be important in mammalian sexual preference."

Humans

 

Sexual behaviour in mice is thought to be driven by their sense of smell.

 

Professor Keith Kendrick, a neuroscientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, said: "In terms of having potential relevance to understanding human sexual preference/orientation, we are of course far less influenced by odour cues in this context than mice are.

 

"There is some very limited evidence for altered responses to selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the brains of homosexuals, but we have been using psychoactive drugs which either increase or decrease serotonin function for quite some time now, and while effects on sexual arousal, impulsivity and aggression have often been reported, no effects on sexual preference/orientation have.

 

"At this time therefore any potential links between serotonin and human sexual preferences must be considered somewhat tenuous."

 

Source.

 

While it's certainly interesting, I doubt it would be the same for humans. Still, it's a proper step forward in understanding sexual preference in mammals, even if it might not be the same as being 'born' gay. Thoughts?

[Nysba]

They're probably already thinking about a way to use this in a way to control the reproduction of mice, for example, maybe just in like city areas where they're a real problem, and decrease the population like that.

Assuming they can replicate this in an efficient manner to lots of mice.

And if they can't, they're probably thinking about that too

Edited April 16, 2011 by Nysba

[Deleted1848331User]

Gay mice. That's something I never expected to hear/read...

[Vindekarr]

Coming from China this is a worrying development.

 

They've proven themselves time and again barbaric enough to be capable of eugenics, who's to say this isnt another attempt? I find this very disturbing, it's all too similar to t6he thinking that led a certain other country to try and find a "jewish gene" and "cure" it.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Vindekarr

[brokenergy]

Very intresting, considering that mice are more into smell than humans, could be good for pest control. Intresting read, thank you

[Vagrant0]

Coming from China this is a worrying development.

 

They've proven themselves time and again barbaric enough to be capable of eugenics, who's to say this isnt another attempt? I find this very disturbing, it's all too similar to t6he thinking that led a certain other country to try and find a "jewish gene" and "cure" it.

Except for one... no, several things...

 

First, the U.S. has put money into research trying to develop a "gay bomb" as a means of non-lethal, if but rather gross, warfare aimed at suppressing insurgents. The bomb was designed to cause those exposed to become extremely "vigorous" and try to couple with anything nearby (assumed other (male) soldiers). Thankfully it either didn't go anywhere or the people working on it decided better as a platoon of U.S. soldiers rolling into an encampment of writhing, sweaty, hairy bodies wrapped in orgy probably wouldn't do well for morale.

 

Second, research in human and animal sexuality is one of the major questions that this generation is trying to solve, but most of the research is just plain bad, poorly handled, or gets picked apart by the media to ruin any useful findings.

 

Third, even so, the report admits two major elements which make it impractical for any real usage in humans...

When presented with a choice of partners, they showed no overall preference for either males or females.

*note that it does not exclude that attempted mating didn't still occur, but that there was no clear bias*

 

Sexual behavior in mice is thought to be driven by their sense of smell.

Implying that really, the mice aren't being turned "gay", but that the way that they process the odors related to sexual attraction may have been been simply turned "on" (no pun intended) even when a lack of sufficient stimulus was present. Which is to say pretty much nothing short of a lack of serotonin just making the mice more frisky.

 

Forth... And this is a big one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, and is found in all bilateral animals, where it mediates gut movements and the animal's perception of resource availability... These genetic studies have demonstrated serotonin has strong associations with depression in regards to a negative environment.

*meaning that what is being changed is merely a perception of the environment.

 

Researchers now believe low levels of serotonin in the animals' brainstems, which control heartbeat and breathing, may have caused sudden death,

*meaning that any effort to try to breed humans or anything with low levels of serotonin as a means of population control would have nearly no effect on the population since most of those gene carriers would simply die out before maturity... Which supports the basis as to why the opposite is more naturally occurring.

[Pushkatu]

I'm finding all these artificial sexual modifications ....well it's very hard to put it in words. When someone's gay, fine, that's just the way he/she is, but when you try to alter such things? Are these the questions our scientists seek answers for? I honestly do my best to be open minded and see the good part in things, but this sounds just wrong. At least scientists from the past had the courage to test their antidotes and practices on themselfs. I realy don't see any good in such testes. I mean at the rate this little animals breed, imagine how things could go wrong if some escape into the wild...(...sewers of our tows,or even nature) and let's be honest these days, it's not only the rats who are beeing tested. X-man/beast Era might not be that far after all. :ermm:

[Nysba]

I really don't think they're doing this to find a way to turn gay ppl straight or the other way around as much as they are trying to find out what causes it.

[Halororor]

I have to admit, the article reeks of media sensationalism. The biggest problem with this research is that if they find a way to make it applicable to humans, the pressure on homosexual individuals will be even worse. Why be homosexual if you can get a 'cure' for it? Remember, the world at large mostly believes that homosexuality is 'wrong', and attempting to drag them into the 21st century, kicking and screaming, won't be made easier if there is a way to change sexual preference. Me? I'm bisexual, and I can't even come out to my parents, or the friends who were intelligent enough to get into university. These are people who I consider to be really intelligent, and if they can't even understand why homosexuality really isn't 'evil' or 'bad', then what little hope we have of changing society as a whole's views are slim indeed.

 

The fact that one of the first phrases that comes to mind when reading the article is 'gay cure', just shows how deeply it's been ingrained into us that being gay places you in the wrong. It's sickening to think that after all humanity has accomplished, we still can't accept each other's race, ethnicity, sexual preference etc.

 

That's why I do not condone this type of research, because all it does is create bigger rifts. Sure, it's interesting to try and understand why one individual is homosexual and another isn't, but in a society so sick to the core with hate, now is not the time for it. I can see why one might feel it is necessary, but is it worth the repercussions? What does it matter whether homosexuality is something you're born with or whether it is influenced by certain events in your life? I see it as just as trivial as trying to find out why one person prefers apples to oranges. It's just a sexual preference, something that should be considered as being as natural as taste in food, but because society sees it as 'different', we've blown it way out of proportion.

[Elsarian]

Very well put my friend.