A latest discovery by the researchers’ has led to the conclusion that there is the hand of ‘divorce gene” behind increasing number of divorces and break-ups.

According to the researchers, this gene play a very vital role in determining as to how the brain reacts to a chemical, which is most important for a man and a woman to develop a relationship.

A questionnaire was designed by the researchers, which aimed at knowing as to how well the man bonds with their partners. It was found that men who scored low on this questionnaire also had serious problems in their marital relation.

This has led to a hope that in near future, the scientists may be able to develop a drug targeted on the “divorce gene” and perhaps help marriages from falling apart.

With the hope to unveil the mystery, Hasse Walum and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, took the help of Sweden’s Twin and Offspring Study. This included data on more than 550 twins and their partners or spouses. There is a chemical in the human body named vasopressin, which is the most important to form human bonding. The team took this chemical under focus and observed a protein which responds to this chemical.

After this, the researchers the genes were compared to the scores of men in the Partner Bonding Scale, which helps to know the degree of attachment of a man to his spouse. The researchers were surprised to notice that men, who had one version of gene, had low scores, and were less likely to be married.

They further found out that wives of such men were also not satisfied and were unhappy with their marriages. Men, who had two copies of the gene, were seen to report a marriage conflict twice as likely to those who didn’t had it. The latest findings have been reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mr Walum, a postgraduate student at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, “Women married to men who carry one or two copies of (the gene) were, on average, less satisfied with their relationship than women married to men who didn't carry it.”

He further added, “There are, of course, many reasons why a person might have relationship problems, but this is the first time that a specific gene variant has been associated with how men bond to their partners.”