[Selkie]

You want cutting edge scientific research Scripter?

Here ya go:

Research links fruit fly gene to sexuality

Friday, June 3, 2005 / 04:22 PM SUMMARY:

Proponents of a genetic component of homosexuality got a boost from research that showed how the sexual orientation of fruit flies can be changed by altering a gene.

Proponents of a genetic component of homosexuality got a boost Friday from research that showed how the sexual orientation of fruit flies can be changed by altering a single gene.

A scientific paper published in the journal Cell this week showed that, by altering a "master" sexual gene that exists in two distinct male and female variants, researchers were able to change the insects' mating habits.

In a series of experiments, scientists found that females given the male variant of the gene pursued other females and wooed them with typically male behaviors.

A seductress would focus on a virgin female by first tapping the desired one's leg, using her wings to play a song and, finally, licking her.

Males given the female version of the gene became passive and receptive to the rubbing, wing-songs and licks of other males.

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050531/full/050531-9.html

[onyx]

These people have their minds set in stone... like from the Stone Age..lol. Fortunately, they're not medical doctors.

[onyx]

These people have their minds set in stone... like from the Stone Age..lol. Fortunately, they're not medical doctors.

[scripter]

The fruit fly research has been discredited. Clint - did you find that article you were looking for?

[Clint N. Suhks]

"This is a first - a superb demonstration that a single gene can serve as a switch for complex behaviors," said Dr. Gero Miesenboeck, a professor of cell biology at Yale.

Yawn...this is nothing new. There have been many "gay" fruit fly studies.

The first one was done in 1963 by Kulbir Gill, AND another in 1995 study by Zhang and Odenwald, and a more current one Balakireva et al, 1998 that ALL found the same thing, when the altered flies were also put in with opposite sex flies, they also attempted to copulate with each other. Every other test until this one found that they were "bisexual" when genetically altered. Funny this one doesn't mention that or even attempts to measure for so called "bisexuality". And as we all know, now say it with me, if science is valid, it's R-E-P-L-I-C-A-B-L-E.

Apparently it causes a hyper sexual response similar to a dog humping a leg...any port in a storm so to speak. THIS IS HARDLY A SMOKING GUN, it's a simple rehashing of an old experiment that doesn't replicate the many others that came before it.

Now if anyone wants to read the study I linked to and have a discussion about it I'd be happy to, but to discuss the merits of this one through "news" reporting and without at least the abstract is futile.

[scripter]

When you excerpted part of the study you didn't really demonstrate how it ties in with human homosexuality. Dickson said (in one of the links I provided in post 189)

The study has no immediate implications for human sexuality.

In the URL you provided,

But the researchers caution that controls on a fruitfly's sexual behaviour are undoubtedly different from our own. "In the case of humans, we know that our sexual behaviours are not irreversibly set by our genes," says Dickson. "But that doesn't mean the genes have no influence," he adds.

"There's still a lot of mystery surrounding the causes of homosexuality," says Hans Van Gossum of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, who has studied fly mating patterns. "It's too early to draw strong conclusions on simple mechanisms like this."

What I believe is happening here is more of the same stuff we see all the time. Certain news makes headlines but it really can't be tied into human homosexuality. The following link summarizes a lot of the headlines we see from the main stream media: The Animal Homosexuality Myth