Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307160126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STUDY SUGGESTS GENE CAUSES HOMOSEXUALITY

Studies in 40 families in which two brothers are gay suggest that much male homosexuality may have its roots in a gene located in a small region of the X chromosome, the sex-linked chromosome that men inherit only from their mothers, according to a report published today in the journal Science.

The researchers, led by molecular geneticist Dean H. Hamer of the National Cancer Institute, are now racing to identify the specific gene from among the 100 or more genes located in that region.

Although the isolation of the gene is likely to lead to the first molecular understanding of how homosexuality develops, the discovery may have broad impact in the study of behaviors in general.

"This is the first time that we have a window on human behavior and the genes that affect it," said Dr. Elliot Gershon, chief of the clinical neurogenetics branch at the National Institute of Mental Health.

"The idea that behavioral traits can be traced to a specific gene is something that has only been theoretical up to this point," said sociologist Pepper Schwartz of the University of Washington. "The whole nature of what we understand to be human behavior will have to be re-evaluated" to understand the genetic links, she said.

But Gershon and others, including Hamer himself, caution that the study needs to be replicated for credibility.