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If your man is cheating, afraid of commitment or generally wreaking havoc on your relationship, the explanation for his bad behaviour may lie in his genes, not his jeans, a new study suggests.

Swedish researchers say they have found the first link between a specific gene and the way men bond with their partners - a discovery that may eventually help determine why some men struggle with coupledom.

Researchers studied data from more than 550 twins and their partners, and pinpointed allele 334 in the less-committed males, a gene variant that carries code for vasopressin, a brain-based hormone previously linked to pair bonding in male voles.

The findings, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, revealed men with one or more copies of allele 334 were twice as likely to struggle with relationships than men without the gene variant, says study co-author Paul Lichtenstein, a professor of genetics and epidemiology at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.

"It turned out that people with a specific allele and gene variant were less attached to their partners," he said.

Women whose male partners had one or more copies of allele 334 said they were less satisfied with their relationship than women attached to men without that particular gene.

But don't drag your new boyfriend to a genetic counsellor just yet. Co-author Hasse Walum warns the findings are preliminary and can't alone predict whether the man's a keeper.