Is sex at birth a biological coin toss? Insights from a longitudinal and GWAS analysis

IF 11.7 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Science Advances Pub Date : 2025-07-18 DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adu7402

Siwen Wang, Bernard A. Rosner, Hongyan Huang, Janet W. Rich-Edwards, Francine Laden, Jaime E. Hart, Kathryn L. Penney, Jorge E. Chavarro

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Abstract

Some families consistently have offspring of only one sex, raising questions about whether sex at birth is truly random. This study investigated whether offspring sex follows a simple binomial distribution within families and identified maternal factors associated with unisexual sibships. We analyzed 58,007 US women with two or more singleton live births (146,064 pregnancies, 1956–2015). Offspring sex followed a beta-binomial rather than a simple binomial distribution, indicating that each family may have a unique probability of male or female births, akin to a weighted coin toss. Deviations from simple binomial distribution were more pronounced when we excluded each woman’s last birth to reduce the influence of sex-based stopping behavior. After excluding the last birth, older maternal age at first birth was associated with higher odds of having offspring of only one sex. A genome-wide association study identified maternal SNPs linked to having female-only (NSUN6) and male-only (TSHZ1) offspring. Our findings suggest maternal factors influence offspring sex distributions.

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出生时的性别是生物学上的抛硬币吗？来自纵向和GWAS分析的见解

一些家庭一直只有一种性别的后代，这引发了关于出生性别是否真的是随机的问题。本研究调查了后代性别在家庭中是否遵循简单的二项分布，并确定了与单性兄弟姐妹相关的母系因素。我们分析了58,007名两次或两次以上单胎活产的美国女性（1956-2015年期间，146,064次怀孕）。后代的性别遵循贝塔二项分布，而不是简单的二项分布，这表明每个家庭可能有一个独特的男性或女性出生的概率，类似于加权抛硬币。当我们排除每个妇女的最后一次生育以减少基于性别的停止行为的影响时，简单二项分布的偏差更加明显。在排除最后一次生育后，头胎年龄较大的母亲生育单一性别的后代的几率更高。一项全基因组关联研究发现，母亲snp与只生雌性后代（NSUN6）和只生雄性后代（TSHZ1）有关。我们的研究结果表明，母系因素影响后代的性别分布。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Science Advances 综合性期刊-综合性期刊

CiteScore

21.40

自引率

1.50%

发文量

1937

审稿时长

29 weeks

期刊介绍： Science Advances, an open-access journal by AAAS, publishes impactful research in diverse scientific areas. It aims for fair, fast, and expert peer review, providing freely accessible research to readers. Led by distinguished scientists, the journal supports AAAS's mission by extending Science magazine's capacity to identify and promote significant advances. Evolving digital publishing technologies play a crucial role in advancing AAAS's global mission for science communication and benefitting humankind.