Science and sex

Authors

  • Victoria de Andrés Spain
  • Miguel Ángel Medina Spain
  • Paul Palmquist Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24310/enbio.v9i166.17488

Keywords:

sex, Unbounded Science

Abstract

A debate on “Sex and Science” took place last autumn in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Málaga. The event organizer (Victoria de Andrés, animal biologist) and three specialists from different scientific fields (Miguel Ángel Medina, biochemist), (Antonio Diéguez, philosopher of science) and (Paul Palmqvist, paleontologist) discussed on a number of topics relevant to this issue, including: (i) the nature and evolutionary advantages of sex; (ii) the pheromones and the “biochemistry of love”; (iii) the singularity of human sexuality among mammals and primates; (iv) the explanations for menarche in women; and (v) the evolutionary paradox of homosexuality. This paper summarizes the main arguments raised by the speakers on these issues.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Blackwelder RE y Shepherd BA. The Diversity of Animal Reproduction. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1981.
Blackwelder RE y Garoian GS. Handbook of Animal Diversity. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1986.
Reinboth R. Intersexuality in fishes.Mem. Soc. Endocrinol. 18: 515-43, 1970.
Reinboth R. Intersexuality in the animal Kingdom. Springer- Verlag, Berlín, 1975.
Reinboth R. Physiological problems of teleost ambisexuality. Environ. Biol. Fishes 22: 249-59, 1988.
Birdsell JA y Wills C.The evolutionary origin and maintenan- ce of sexual recombination: A review of contemporary models. Evolut. Biol. 33: 27-137, 2003.
Fisher RA.The evolution of sexual preference. Eugen. Rev. 7: 184-92, 1915.
Ridley M. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. Viking Books, UK, 1993.
Ni M y otros. Sex in Fungi. Annu. Rev. Genet. 45: 405-30, 2011.
Mittwoch U. Sex determination. EMBO Rep. 14: 588-92, 2013.
Wilson, E. Recent research on the determination and heredity of sex. Science 29: 53-70, 1909.
Stevens, NM. Studies in spermatogenesis, with special refe- rence to the accessory chromosome.Publ. Carnegie Inst. Wash. 36: 1-32. 1905.
Tiju JH y Levan A. The chromosome number of man. Heriditas 42: 1-6, 1956.
Ford CE y Hamerton JL.The chromosome of man. Nature 178: 1020-3, 1956.
Ford CE y otros. A sex-chroomosome anomaly in a case of gonadal dysgenesis (Turner’s syndrome). Lancet 273: 711-3, 1959.
Fraccaro M y otros. Chromosome complement in gonadal dysgenesis. Lancet 273: 866, 1959.
Jacobs PA y Strong JA.A case of human intersexuality having a possible XXY sex-determinig mechanism. Nature 183: 302-303, 1959.
Sinclair AH y otros. A gene from the human sex-determining region encodes a protein with homology to a conserved human binding motif. Nature 346: 352-4, 1990.
Affara NA y otros. Analysis of the SRY gene in 21 sexreversed XY females identifies four new point mutations in the conserved DNA binding domain. Hum. Mol. Genet. 2: 785-9,1993.
Eggers S y Sinclair A. Mammalian sex determination -insights from human and mice. emphChromosome Res. 20: 215-38, 2012.
Pieau C y otros. Temperature-dependent sex determination and gonadal differentiation in reptiles. Cell Mol. Life Sci. 55: 889-900, 1999.
Bogani D y otros. Loss pf mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 4 (MAP3K4) reveals a requirement for MAPK signalling in mouse sex determination. Plos Biol., 7: e1000196, 2009.
Pearlman A y otros. Mutations in MAP3K1 cause 46 XY disorders of sex development and implicate a common signal transduction pathway in human testis determination. Am. J Hum. Genet. 87: 898-904, 2010.
Carter CS y Porges SW.The biochemistry of love: an oxytocin hypothesis. EMBO Rep. 14: 12-6, 2013.
Dunbar RIM y Shultz S. Evolution in the Social Brain.Science 317: 1344-7, 2007.
Dunbar RIM.The social brain hypothesis and its implications for social evolution. Ann. Hum. Biol. 36: 562-72, 2009.
Bales KL y otros. Both oxytocin and vasopressin may influence alloparental care in male prairie voles. Horm. Behav.44: 354-61, 2004.
Aragona BJ y Wang Z.Dopamine regulation of social choice in a monogamous rodent species.Front. Behav. Neurosci. 3: 15, 2009.
Murata K y otros. Identification of an olfactory signal molecule that activates the central regulator of reproduction in goats. Curr. Biol. 24: 681-6, 2014.
URL:http://www.abc.es/ciencia/20140227/abc-iolor-caba-renciende-ellas-201402271303.html (Consultado el 4 de octubre de 2017).
URL:https://www.lavanguardia.com/natural...descubren-el-olor-de-los-machos-de-cabra-que-excita-sexulamente-a-las- hembras.html (Consultado el 4 de octubre de 2017).
URL:https://www.xatakaciencia.com/biologia/el-aroma-de-amcho-cabrio-las-vuelve-locas (Consultado el 4 de octubre de 2017).
URL:http://www.ebay.com/itm/MEDUSA-039-S-PHEROMONE-GOAT-039-...mp-BOTTLE-OF-PERFUME-TROPIC-SCENT (Consultado el 4 de octubre de 2017).
Corrochano LM y Cerdá-Olmedo E. Sex, light and carotenes: the development of Phycomyces. Trends. Genet. 8: 268-74, 1992.
Idnurm A. Sex determination in the first-described sexual fungus. Eukar. Cell 10: 1485-91, 2011.
Alcalde E y otros. Cyclofarnesoids and methyulhexanoids produced from ß-carotene in Phycomyces blakesleeanus. Phyto- chem. 124: 38-45, 2016.
Nieuwenhuis BPS y James TY. The frequency of sex in fungi. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 371: 20150540, 2016.
Dixson A. Homosexual behaviour in primates. In: A. Poiani (Ed.), Animal Homosexuality: A Biosocial Perspective, pp. 381-400. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Driscoll EV. Bisexual species. Scie. Am. Mind. 19: 68-73,2008.
de Waal FBM. Bonobo sex and society. Scie. Am. 272: 82-8, 1995.
de Waal FBM. Sex as an alternative to aggression in the bonobo. En: (Abramson, P. y Pinkerton, S., eds.) Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 37-56, 1995.
Parish AM. Sex and food control in the “uncommon chimpanzee”: how bonobo females overcome a phylogenetic legacy of male dominance. Ethol. Sociobiol. 15: 157-79, 1994.
Clay Z y otros. Female bonobos use copulation calls as social signals. Biol. Let. 7: 513-6, 2011.
Rilling JK y otros. Differences between chimpanzees and bonobos in neural systems supporting social cognition. SCAN 7: 369-79, 2012.
Harcourt AH y otros. Testis weight, body weight and breeding system in primates. Nature 293: 55-7, 1981.
Salomon, JA y otros. Healthy life expectancy for 187 coun- tries, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden Disease Study 2010. Lancet 380: 2144-2162, 2012.
Hawkes K y otros. Grandmothering, menopause, and the evolution of human life histories. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95: 1336-9, 1998.
Min KJ y otros. The lifespan of Korean eunuchs. Curr. Biol. 22: R792-3, 2012.
Vasey PL. Homosexual behavior in primates: a review of evidence and theory. Int. J. Primatol. 16: 173-204, 1995.
Kirkpatrick RC.The evolution of human homosexual behavior. Curr .Anthropol. 41: 385-413, 2000.

Published

2019-03-20

How to Cite

de Andrés, V., Medina , M. Ángel, & Palmquist, P. (2019). Science and sex. Encuentros En La Biología, 9(166), 6–18. https://doi.org/10.24310/enbio.v9i166.17488