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DNA of Voles May Hint at Why Some Fathers Shirk Duties
NY Times ^ | June 10, 2005 | NICHOLAS WADE

Posted on 06/10/2005 4:18:16 PM PDT by neverdem

Some male prairie voles are devoted fathers and faithful partners, while others are less satisfactory on both counts. The spectrum of behavior is shaped by a genetic mechanism that allows for quick evolutionary changes, two researchers from Emory University report in today's issue of Science.

The mechanism depends on a highly variable section of DNA involved in controlling a gene. The Emory researchers who found it, Elizabeth A. D. Hammock and Larry J. Young, say they have detected the same mechanism embedded in the sequence of human DNA but do not yet know how it may influence people's behavior.

Voles, not to be confused with the burrowing, hill-making mole, are mouselike rodents with darker coats and fatter tails. The control section of their DNA expands and contracts in the course of evolution so that members of a wild population of voles, the Emory researchers have found, will carry sections of many different lengths. Male voles with a long version of the control section are monogamous and devoted to their pups, whereas those with shorter versions are less so.

People have the same variability in their DNA, with a control section that comes in at least 17 lengths detected so far, Dr. Young said.

So should women seek men with the longest possible DNA control region in the hope that, like the researchers' voles, they will display "increased probability of preferences for a familiar-partner female over a novel-stranger female"?

Dr. Young said he expected that any such genetic effect in men would be influenced by culture, and thus hard to predict on an individual basis.

The control mechanism is also present in humans' two closest cousins, the chimpanzee and the bonobo, and bears on a controversy as to which of the two species humans more closely resemble.

Chimpanzees operate territorially based...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Technical; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: deoxyribonucleicacid; dna; emoryuniversity; evolution; families; familylife
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http://www.sciencemag.org/ The vole story isn't available unless you subscribe.

Larry J. Young/Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Prairie voles on gels of their DNA, a possible clue to their home life.

1 posted on 06/10/2005 4:18:16 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

2 posted on 06/10/2005 4:20:40 PM PDT by m87339 (Squawk: "Plane is rough on Autoland" Response: "Autoland not installed on this equipment")
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To: longtermmemmory; shaggy eel; Fiddlstix; Alia

...another animal-based proposal for eugenics from feminazis and the NY Times.


3 posted on 06/10/2005 4:23:00 PM PDT by familyop ("Let us try" sounds better, don't you think? "Essayons" is so...Latin.)
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To: neverdem

"Voles, not to be confused with the burrowing, hill-making mole..."

I'm guessing that only a NYT reader would make that mistake.


4 posted on 06/10/2005 4:23:45 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: neverdem
Oh, sure. It's all GENETICS and we don't have any control over our actions.

More junk science from the Slimes.

5 posted on 06/10/2005 4:27:11 PM PDT by SIDENET ("You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.")
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To: El Gato; JudyB1938; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; ..

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.


6 posted on 06/10/2005 4:27:11 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem
So should women seek men with the longest possible DNA ...

Should I say it?

7 posted on 06/10/2005 4:28:21 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Leftists would have no standards at all)
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To: neverdem

This article says a whole lot of nothing.
Choices are not genetic. Yet another attempt to explain away bad behavior because of genetics.


8 posted on 06/10/2005 4:28:54 PM PDT by Conservatrix ("He who stands for nothing will fall for anything.")
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To: neverdem

Vale of the Vole?


9 posted on 06/10/2005 4:31:30 PM PDT by aomagrat (Where weapons are not allowed, it is best to carry weapons.)
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To: Texas Eagle

LOL


10 posted on 06/10/2005 4:35:54 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: familyop
lol. Remember during the 70s, the big pick up line was: What's your sign? (astrologic). It's possible the new pick-up sign of the 2000s is being geared towards: What's your gene read-out say... Show me your genes, and I'll show you mine... (heavy breathing)

Let's see if our "genes" are compatible.

Oh sorry, can't date you, I'm a level 18, and you're a level.. 11. Bye!

"Although our genetic composites make out well in re compatibility -- Venus conjunct Jupiter. I mean. Gene 3 conjunct your Gene 13 means our child will never be socially adept; no children for us. Let's take a pledge of compatibility!

Scientology dating sounds so boring to me.

11 posted on 06/10/2005 4:44:28 PM PDT by Alia
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To: neverdem
So should women seek men with the longest possible DNA control region

Ja Vole...(excuse my German)

12 posted on 06/10/2005 4:53:03 PM PDT by sourcery ("Compelling State Interest" is the refuge of judicial activist traitors against the Constitution)
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To: aomagrat

20th Century Vole Pictures

presents


A Man with 2 Buttocks


13 posted on 06/10/2005 4:53:46 PM PDT by Erik Latranyi (9-11 is your Peace Dividend)
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To: neverdem

b.s.


14 posted on 06/10/2005 4:54:50 PM PDT by ken21 (if you didn't see it on tv, then it didn't happen. /s)
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To: familyop

seems like a publish or perish BS article. Produce a PC hypothesis and then pray for the power of PC to yield funding when in competition with feminist (garbage) studies departments.


15 posted on 06/10/2005 4:57:15 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: neverdem

Kill anything that is related to a mole, sounds like mole or looks like mole. The little bastards are a menace.


16 posted on 06/10/2005 5:23:23 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Spec.4 Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: neverdem
I fail to see the connection between what a rodent does and what a human does.

I can just imagine the uproar if someone wrote an article posing the comparison of women and some bird that is constantly squawking.

17 posted on 06/10/2005 5:32:17 PM PDT by Paul Atreides (FACT: You can get more reliable information in a beauty shop, than from the media)
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To: neverdem

Evolutionary Psychology junkscience alert.


18 posted on 06/10/2005 6:11:09 PM PDT by microgood
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To: microgood
Evolutionary Psychology junkscience alert.

I disagree. This could prove to be quite vole-atile. The literature will be vole-uminous, and will impact our theories of human vole-ition.

Is there an e-vole-ution ping list?

19 posted on 06/10/2005 6:16:11 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping.


20 posted on 06/10/2005 7:45:03 PM PDT by GOPJ (Deep Throat(s) -- top level FBI officials playing cub reporters for fools.)
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