Scripps-Howard: Genes and Gender

I am not enlisting this in the service of any big polemic--it's just interesting:

Genetic differences between men and women hardly end at the X and Y chromosomes.

A new study by researchers at UCLA has determined that thousands of human genes behave differently in the corresponding organs of males and females -- even in fat and muscle tissue.

The findings help explain why the same disease often affects men and women differently, and why the effects of some drugs may vary drastically between the sexes . . .

"At the genetic level, the only difference between men and women is the sex chromosomes," Drake said. "Out of the more than 30,000 genes that make up the human genome, the X and Y chromosomes account for less than 2 percent of the body's genes.

"But when we looked at the gene expression in these four tissues, more than half of the genes differed significantly between the sexes."

Tags: genes, gender, gender differences, medical research