ArticleArchives of sexual behavior2021
The De-Scent of Sexuality: Did Loss of a Pheromone Signaling Protein Permit the Evolution of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior in Primates?
Article in Archives of sexual behavior, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Same-Sex Sexual Behavior in Male Toque Macaques (Macaca sinica aurifrons) of Lower Hanthana, Sri Lanka.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- Non-Reproductive Sexual Behavior in Wild White-Thighed Colobus Monkeys (Colobus vellerosus).Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Ancestral sex-role plasticity facilitates the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Did Prosociality Drive the Evolution of Homosexuality? Response to Barron (2020).Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- Did Prosociality Drive the Evolution of Homosexuality? Response to Luoto (2021).Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- TRPC2: A Pheromonal Funnel Into Same-Sex Sexual Behavior.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- The Genetic Inactivation of the Vomero-Nasal Organ in Primates Allows the Evolution of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior But Does Not Explain Homosexual Orientation in Humans.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- Response to Commentaries: Sniffing Out Consensus on the Evolution of Primate Same-Sex Sexual Behavior.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- More Evidence and Context Are Needed to Evaluate the Possibility That Scent Perception Is Part of the Same-Sex Sexual Behavior Story.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- De-Scent with Modification: More Evidence and Caution Needed to Assess Whether the Loss of a Pheromone Signaling Protein Permitted the Evolution of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior in Primates.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- The De-Scent of Sexuality: Should We Smell a Rat?Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- Is the Loss of Trpc2 Gene Function a Real Working Hypothesis for the Emergence of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior in Old World Primates?Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- Pheromones and Same-Sex Sexual Behavior.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- Archives at 50 Years.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Primate same-sex sexual behavior (SSSB) is rarely observed in strepsirrhine species, and only somewhat more common in platyrrhines, but is observed in nearly all catarrhine species, including humans, suggesting the common catarrhine ancestor as the origin of routine SSSB. In mice, disruption of the transient receptor potential cation channel 2 (TRPC2) gene, which is crucial for transducing chemosensory signals from pheromones in the vomeronasal organ, greatly increased the likelihood of SSSB. We note that catarrhine primates share a common deleterious mutation in this gene, indicating that the protein was dysfunctional in the common catarrhine ancestral primate approximately 25 mya (million years ago). We hypothesize that the loss of this protein for processing pheromonal signals in males and females made SSSB more likely in a primate ancestral species by effectively lifting a pheromonally mediated barrier to SSSB and that this was an important precursor to the evolution of such behavior in humans. Additional comparisons between SSSB and the functional status of the TRPC2 gene or related proteins across primate species could lend support to or falsify this hypothesis. Our current research indicates that loss of TRPC2 function in developing mice leads to the loss or attenuation of sexually dimorphisms in the adult brain, which may help us to understand the biological underpinnings of SSSB. Our hypothesis offers an ultimate evolutionary explanation for SSSB in humans.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.