(ORDO NEWS) — A new study has shown that some people who do not want to have children do not do so simply because of their genetics.
Their genetic variations simply do not want offspring! Some people don’t want to have children. There are many different reasons for this, including genetics.
Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK have said that there are mutations that don’t make people infertile, but they can increase their desire to stay single and never have children. According to scientists, people with this genetic profile also tend to earn less and be less likely to graduate.
The experts stressed that their findings only explain a small proportion of childless people and that life choices play a much more important role. In addition, even among those people whose reluctance is due to a large number of certain mutations, the probability of having a child is still 50%.
How can genes be responsible for our desires?
Some genes cannot withstand destructive genetic changes, which leads to their disappearance from the population through natural selection.
Previous studies, which have focused on a subset of about 3,000 genes with a loss of their primary function, have shown that mutations in some of them may be associated with a decrease in the number of offspring.
For example, mutations can cause disorders that shorten lifespan, lead to infertility, or affect cognition or behavior. However, about two-thirds of known restricted genes have not been associated with such genetic diseases.
To explore how natural selection might affect the 3,000 or so previously studied restricted genes, Matthew Herles and colleagues analyzed data from 340,925 participants aged 39 to 73.
They found that harmful variations in the genes were associated with childlessness in men. This relationship is also found in women, but much weaker. The analysis shows that men with genetic variants in certain genes may be more likely to exhibit cognitive and behavioral traits that may reduce their chances of finding a partner.
Over generations and at the population level, the association between damaging mutations in genes and reduced reproductive success could explain about 20% of selective pressure on genes, the researchers say.
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