�Scientists poring over human Swedish twins and voles receive discovered a gene variate involved in producing a hormone that affects monogamy in
animals whereby hands with two copies of the variant were twice as likely to receive had a relationship crisis with their spouse or partner in the last 12
months than manpower who did not carry the variant.
The study was the act of lead author Hasse Walum, from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues in Sweden and the US, and was
promulgated online on 2nd September in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Experts suggest that pair-bonding is an important step in the evolutionary development of the social brain, wrote the authors. Studies on voles evidence
that the hormone and neurotransmitter arginine vasopressin (AVP) plays an important role in this process, and that there is a strong link between a
genetic sequence that codes for a subtype of the AVP receptor and the tendency for male voles to remain monogamous.
In this study, Walum and colleagues ground that a similar mechanism exists in humans.
552 twins and their married spouses or partners (82 per penny of the pairs were married, while 18 per cent lived together simply were non married) world Health Organization
were pickings part in the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden filled in questionnaires on bonding and underwent DNA tests.
The researchers found that manpower with a particular variant of the AVPR1A gene (that codes for vasopressin in mankind) scored lower on the bonding questions and
were less likely to be married compared to workforce who did not ingest the variant.
Also, men with two copies of the gene variance were double as likely to theme having had a relationship crisis with their matrimonial spouse or partner in the
final 12 months as manpower without the variant.
Walum and colleagues concluded that:
"These results suggest an association 'tween a individual gene and pair-bonding behaviour in man, and suggest that the well characterized influence
of AVP on pair-bonding in voles may be of relevance likewise for humans."
"Genetic variation in the antidiuretic hormone receptor 1a gene ( AVPR1A ) associates with pair-bonding behaviour in humans."
Hasse Walum, Lars Westberg, Susanne Henningsson, Jenae M Neiderhiser, David Reiss, Wilmar Igl, Jody M Ganiban, Erica L Spotts, Nancy L
Pedersen, Elias Eriksson, and Paul Lichtenstein.
PNAS published September 2, 2008.
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0803081105.
Click here for Abstract.
Sources: Journal article.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
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Monday, 8 September 2008
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