Between you and your genes - links between personality traits and human genetics - Brief Article

It's been dubbed the Judy Garland gene, the show tune gene, even the queen gene. Whatever the moniker, much scientific--and public--stock has been placed in the notion that homosexuality is genetic. But that theory may have been quashed by the February completion of the Human Genome Project, which mapped all of the body's genetic code.

Humans were found to have just 30,000 to 40,000 genes--only a third more than roundworms and just double that of fruit flies--damaging any notion that every human trait is tied to a corresponding gene.

"Most complex behaviors are most likely linked to more than one gene," said Eric Vilain, a professor of human genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles "Additionally, all complex human behavior can only partially be attributed to genetics."

In fact, the completion of the genome project and the discovery that all people are 99.9% genetically identical to each other leads researchers to lean toward the concept that our genes don't set us apart from each other but rather unite us. "To put it simply," Vilain said, "it appears that we're all a little black, a little Jewish, and a little gay."

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