The difference between men and women is not only social construction
Author: Javier Ordovás | Source: Catholic.net
Bioethics Observatory reports: two researchers from the Department of Molecular Genetics of the Weizmann Institute of Science reveal in a study some opposite data to gender ideology.
Shmuel Pietrokovski and Moran Gershoni, both researchers from the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, have revealed that about 6,500 human protein-coding genes react differently in the male and female sex.
This fact is contrary to gender´s ideology wich considers that the difference between men and women is a social and/or cultural fact, supposing it as a construction, rather than something biological or natural. In a recent article, scientists said that to identify the thousands of genes they turned to the GTEx project, a very large study of human genetic expression in which numerous organs and tissues of the body are studied in about 550 adult donors.
According to the authors, "This project has allowed, for the first time, the comprehensive mapping of the genetic structure of differential human sex."
Both researchers have examined about 20,000 protein-coding genes, classifying them by sex and looking for differences in the expression of each tissue.
They have eventually identified about "6,500 genes with activity that was biased towards one sex or another in at least one tissue."
“For example, they found genes that were highly expressed in men's skin in relation to those in women's skin, and they realized that they were related to body hair growth. The genetic expression for muscle building was higher in men; and for fat storage it was higher in women. ”
The detailed map of these genes provides evidence that men and women experience "a kind of separate evolution" that is also interconnected
Several years ago, the authors of the article wondered the reason why the prevalence of some human diseases is common.
In that sense, they verified that the mutations that affect fertility were relatively widespread, where about “15% of couples trying to conceive were defined as infertile”. For them, "common sense" told them that these mutations, which "directly affect the survival of the species by reducing the number of children, should have been quickly eliminated by natural selection."
In their study, they demonstrate that mutations in specific sperm formation genes persist precisely "because genes are expressed only in men."
Apart from the sexual organs, researchers have detected a good number of sex-linked genes in the mammary glands, "something not so surprising", except "that approximately half of these genes are also expressed in men."
"Because men have fully equipped but basically non-functional breast equipment, the authors suggest that some of these genes could suppress breastfeeding."
Another gene, which is mainly expressed actively in the brains of women, "although its exact function is unknown," it is thought, "it can protect Parkinson's neurons, a disease that has a higher prevalence and begins earlier in the men".
The authors have also identified the genetic expression in the liver of women that regulates their metabolism before medications, "providing molecular evidence for the known difference in drug processing between women and men."
Finally, the authors state that this study also "emphasizes" the need for a better understanding of the differences between men and women, "in the genes that cause the disease or respond to treatments."