Male sexual orientation is a scientifically and socially important trait shown by family and twin studies to be influenced by environmental and complex genetic factors. Individual genome-wide linkage studies (GWLS) have been conducted, but not jointly analyzed. Two main datasets account for > 90% of the published GWLS concordant sibling pairs on the trait and are jointly analyzed here: MGSOSO (Molecular Genetic Study of Sexual Orientation; 409 concordant sibling pairs in 384 families, Sanders et al. (2015)) and Hamer (155 concordant sibling pairs in 145 families, Mustanski et al. (2005)). We conducted multipoint linkage analyses with Merlin on the datasets separately since they were genotyped differently, integrated genetic marker positions, and combined the resultant LOD (logarithm of the odds) scores at each 1 cM grid position. We continue to find the strongest linkage support at pericentromeric chromosome 8 and chromosome Xq28. We also incorporated the remaining published GWLS dataset (on 55 families) by using meta-analytic approaches on published summary statistics. The meta-analysis has maximized the positional information from GWLS of currently available family resources and can help prioritize findings from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and other approaches. Although increasing evidence highlights genetic contributions to male sexual orientation, our current understanding of contributory loci is still limited, consistent with the complexity of the trait. Further increasing genetic knowledge about male sexual orientation, especially via large GWAS, should help advance our understanding of the biology of this important trait.

男性性取向是家庭和双胞胎研究表明的一种科学和社会重要特征，受环境和复杂遗传因素的影响。已经进行了个体全基因组连锁研究（GWLS），但没有进行联合分析。两个主要数据集占已发表的 GWLS 性状一致兄弟对的 90% 以上，并在此进行联合分析：MGSOSO（性取向的分子遗传学研究；384 个家庭中的 409 个一致兄弟对，Sanders 等人（2015 年））和Hamer（145 个家庭中的 155 对一致兄弟姐妹，Mustanski 等人（2005 年））。我们与 Merlin 分别对数据集进行了多点连锁分析，因为它们的基因分型不同，整合了遗传标记位置，并在每个 1 cM 网格位置组合了所得的 LOD（几率的对数）分数。我们继续在着丝粒周围 8 号染色体和 Xq28 号染色体上找到最强的连锁支持。我们还通过对已发布的汇总统计数据使用元分析方法合并了其余已发布的 GWLS 数据集（55 个家庭）。荟萃分析最大限度地利用了当前可用家庭资源的 GWLS 位置信息，并有助于优先考虑全基因组关联研究 (GWAS) 和其他方法的结果。尽管越来越多的证据强调遗传对男性性取向的贡献，但我们目前对促成基因座的理解仍然有限，这与性状的复杂性一致。进一步增加关于男性性取向的遗传知识，特别是通过大型 GWAS，应该有助于促进我们对这一重要特征的生物学的理解。