A major genetic study of Britons has found DNA linked to age of first sexual intercourse and age of puberty, it was announced last night.
The 38 genetic variants found in the study also pointed to the age at which women first gave birth and the number of children they bore.
Medical Research Council researchers in Cambridge, UK, say the genes play a part regardless of the social and environmental factors that also influence sexual behaviour.
The findings were reported in the journal Nature Genetics and come from a study of 380,000 people involved in the UK Biobank.
The researchers say several genes are linked to brain development. One gene CADM2 is linked to having a risk-taking personality, a factor that might influence sexual behaviour.
Researcher Dr John Perry said: “While social and cultural factors are clearly relevant, we show that age at first sexual intercourse is also influenced by genes which act on the timing of childhood physical maturity and by genes which contribute to our natural differences in personality types."
Fellow researcher Dr Ken Ong, a paediatrician, said: "We have already shown that early puberty and rapid childhood growth adversely affect disease risks in later life, but we have now shown that the same factors can have a negative effect at a much younger age, including earlier sexual intercourse and poorer education attainment.”
Physical and neuro-behavioural determinants of reproductive onset and success. Nature Genetics 18 April 2016
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