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Could the amount of junk DNA a man has make him a more or less faithful partner? Work on rat-like animals called voles suggests it's possible. Could the amount of junk DNA a man has make him a more or less faithful partner? Work on rat-like animals called voles suggests it's possible. Some women argue that men need only three things to be unfaithful: a functioning Y chromosome, a heart beat and an opportunity. But recent animal research gives us blokes more credit; well male prairie voles at least, which apparently stick to their mates for life and are model fathers to their young. It turns out that prairies voles have sporting cousins called meadow voles who like to 'play the field', so to speak. Scientists suspected that a particular stretch of DNA which seemed to have no purpose - dubbed 'junk DNA' - might in fact influence behaviour. That was because prairie voles had bigger junk than meadow voles. And by increasing the length of this stretch, the researchers were able to turn meadow voles into something akin to their virtuous and child-centred prairie relations. There's no evidence yet that the size of a bloke's junk affects his wandering eye, but there are suggestions that this DNA can affect human behaviour. It must nonplus the meadow voles down the pub though to know theirs is smaller.
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