scholarly journals Identification of general patterns of sex-biased expression in Daphnia, a genus with environmental sex determination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Molinier ◽  
Céline M.O. Reisser ◽  
Peter Fields ◽  
Adeline Ségard ◽  
Yan Galimov ◽  
...  

AbstractDaphnia reproduce by cyclic-parthenogenesis, where phases of asexual reproduction are intermitted by sexual production of diapause stages. This life cycle, together with environmental sex determination, allow the comparison of gene expression between genetically identical males and females. We investigated gene expression differences between males and females in four genotypes of Daphnia magna and compared the results with published data on sex-biased gene expression in two other Daphnia species, each representing one of the major phylogenetic clades within the genus. We found that 42% of all annotated genes showed sex-biased expression in D. magna. This proportion is similar both to estimates from other Daphnia species as well as from species with genetic sex determination, suggesting that sex-biased expression is not reduced under environmental sex determination. Among 7453 single copy, one-to-one orthologs in the three Daphnia species, 707 consistently showed sex-biased expression and 675 were biased in the same direction in all three species. Hence these genes represent a core-set of genes with consistent sex-differential expression in the genus. A functional analysis identified that several of them are involved in known sex determination pathways. Moreover, 75% were overexpressed in females rather than males, a pattern that appears to be a general feature of sex-biased gene expression in Daphnia.Short summaryIn some species with environmental sex determination, gene expression can be compared between genetically identical males and females. Here, we investigated sex-biased expression in one such species, D. magna, and compared it with data from two congeners. We found that all three species have a common set of 675 genes with consistent differential expression and with a strong bias towards overexpression in females rather than males. Moreover, the proportion of sex-biased genes in each of the three Daphnia species was similar to Drosophila species with genetic sex determination, suggesting that sex-biased expression is not necessarily reduced under environmental sex determination.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e23192-e23192
Author(s):  
Li Yu ◽  
Feng Tieshan ◽  
Lifeng Li ◽  
Shifu Chen ◽  
Liu Xiaoliang

e23192 Background: The incidence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) varies significantly between genders, being higher in men than in women. While the molecular mechanisms remain unexplored, we systematically analyzed the gene expression and SNV signature to identify key molecular aberrations and pathways. Methods: Gene expression and simple nucleotide variation data of 407 HCC patients with HCC including 140 females and 267 males were collected. We identified genes with differential mutation frequency in two cohorts using Fisher’s exact test (p-value < 0.05), and Deseq2 to identify differential expression genes (FDR < 0.05 and fold change > 2). Enrichment analysis was applied using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and the Reactome database (p adjust < 0.05). Results: In total, 103 genes with differential mutation frequency in two cohorts were identified. Of these genes, 57 genes were differentially expressed, and the number of up-regulated genes in males and females were 21 and 36, respectively. The genes that show significant up-regulation in males are KDM5D and ANKFN1 which have the log2(fold change) of 7.49 and 4.45. The genes that show significant up-regulation in females are SYT13 and SCD5 which have the log2(fold change) of 2.33 and 2.29. The result of enrichment analysis showed that the up-regulated genes in males and females were involved in different biological pathways. In males, the up-regulated genes mainly participated in the PPAR signaling pathway. In females, the up-regulated genes mainly participated in the Rho GTPase cycle, regulation of insulin secretion and integration of energy metabolism. Conclusions: In this study, 57 genes with differential mutation frequency and differential expression between males and females with HCC were identified based on TCGA dataset. Enrichment analysis result indicated that these genes are mainly involved in signaling pathways relevant to carcinogenesis and metabolism.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josselin Gueno ◽  
Simon Bourdareau ◽  
Guillaume Cossard ◽  
Olivier Godfroy ◽  
Agnieszka Lipinska ◽  
...  

SummaryIn many eukaryotes, such as dioicous mosses and many algae, sex is determined by UV sex chromosomes and is expressed during the haploid phase of the life cycle. In these species, the male and female developmental programs are initiated by the presence of the U- or V-specific regions of the sex chromosomes but, as in XY and ZW systems, phenotypic differentiation is largely driven by autosomal sex-biased gene expression. The mechanisms underlying sex-biased transcription in XY, ZW or UV sexual systems currently remain elusive. Here, we set out to understand the extent and nature of epigenomic changes associated with sexual differentiation in the brown alga Ectocarpus, which has a well described UV system. Five histone modifications, H3K4me3, H3K27Ac, H3K9Ac, H3K36me3, H4K20me3, were quantified in near-isogenic male and female lines, leading to the identification of 13 different chromatin states across the Ectocarpus genome that showed different patterns of enrichment at transcribed, silent, housekeeping or narrowly-expressed genes. Chromatin states were strongly correlated with levels of gene expression indicating a relationship between the assayed marks and gene transcription. The relative proportion of each chromatin state across the genome remained stable in males and females, but a subset of genes exhibited different chromatin states in the two sexes. In particular, males and females displayed distinct patterns of histone modifications at sex-biased genes, indicating that chromatin state transitions occur preferentially at genes involved in sex-specific pathways. Finally, our results reveal a unique chromatin landscape of the U and V sex chromosomes compared to autosomes. Taken together, our observations reveal a role for histone modifications in sex determination and sexual differentiation in a UV sexual system, and suggest that the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation of genes on the UV sex chromosomes may differ from those operating on autosomal genes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Kelven Lopes ◽  
Helder Lima de Queiroz

This study examined the traditional knowledge of fishermen at Mamirauá Reserve about sex determination of pirarucus, Arapaima gigas Schinz 1822. We evaluated the criteria used for by fishermen in the sector Jarauá at Mamirauá Reserve for this determination, during the fisheries season, from October to November 2004. We analyzed responses of a group of about 15 fishermen collected in structured interviews regarding 109 individual pirarucus, 65 males and 44 females. From this sample, only 64 fish have their sex correctly predicted by the fishermen. Although the traditional knowledge of local fishermen is a key component of the sustainable fisheries of this species, this knowledge is not functional in all ranges and aspects, as in sex distinction. We found that the local fishermen evaluated are not able to recognize the sex of pirarucus, although some criteria applied for this purpose are consistent with their biology. The rates of correct forecasts for recognition of males and females were similar to those obtained by chance, even when the criteria applied were consistent, as the criterion “coloration”, which was significantly consistent for identification of males. Yet the group of fishermen interviewed in this study apparently did not apply this criterion correctly.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennan Hyden ◽  
Craig H. Carlson ◽  
Fred E. Gouker ◽  
Jeremy Schmutz ◽  
Kerrie Barry ◽  
...  

AbstractSex dimorphism and gene expression were studied in developing catkins in 159 F2 individuals from the bioenergy crop Salix purpurea, and potential mechanisms and pathways for regulating sex development were explored. Differential expression, eQTL, bisulfite sequencing, and network analysis were used to characterize sex dimorphism, detect candidate master regulator genes, and identify pathways through which the sex determination region (SDR) may mediate sex dimorphism. Eleven genes are presented as candidates for master regulators of sex, supported by gene expression and network analyses. These include genes putatively involved in hormone signaling, epigenetic modification, and regulation of transcription. eQTL analysis revealed a suite of transcription factors and genes involved in secondary metabolism and floral development that were predicted to be under direct control of the sex determination region. Furthermore, data from bisulfite sequencing and small RNA sequencing revealed strong differences in expression between males and females that would implicate both of these processes in sex dimorphism pathways. These data indicate that the mechanism of sex determination in Salix purpurea is likely different from that observed in the related genus Populus. This further demonstrates the dynamic nature of SDRs in plants, which involves a multitude of mechanisms of sex determination and a high rate of turnover.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weitong Cui ◽  
Huaru Xue ◽  
Lei Wei ◽  
Jinghua Jin ◽  
Xuewen Tian ◽  
...  

Abstract Background RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) has been widely applied in oncology for monitoring transcriptome changes. However, the emerging problem that high variation of gene expression levels caused by tumor heterogeneity may affect the reproducibility of differential expression (DE) results has rarely been studied. Here, we investigated the reproducibility of DE results for any given number of biological replicates between 3 and 24 and explored why a great many differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were not reproducible. Results Our findings demonstrate that poor reproducibility of DE results exists not only for small sample sizes, but also for relatively large sample sizes. Quite a few of the DEGs detected are specific to the samples in use, rather than genuinely differentially expressed under different conditions. Poor reproducibility of DE results is mainly caused by high variation of gene expression levels for the same gene in different samples. Even though biological variation may account for much of the high variation of gene expression levels, the effect of outlier count data also needs to be treated seriously, as outlier data severely interfere with DE analysis. Conclusions High heterogeneity exists not only in tumor tissue samples of each cancer type studied, but also in normal samples. High heterogeneity leads to poor reproducibility of DEGs, undermining generalization of differential expression results. Therefore, it is necessary to use large sample sizes (at least 10 if possible) in RNA-Seq experimental designs to reduce the impact of biological variability and DE results should be interpreted cautiously unless soundly validated.


Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Yu-Jun Wang ◽  
Hua-Ling Wang ◽  
Xiao-Wei Wang ◽  
Shu-Sheng Liu

Females and males often differ obviously in morphology and behavior, and the differences between sexes are the result of natural selection and/or sexual selection. To a great extent, the differences between the two sexes are the result of differential gene expression. In haplodiploid insects, this phenomenon is obvious, since males develop from unfertilized zygotes and females develop from fertilized zygotes. Whiteflies of the Bemisia tabaci species complex are typical haplodiploid insects, and some species of this complex are important pests of many crops worldwide. Here, we report the transcriptome profiles of males and females in three species of this whitefly complex. Between-species comparisons revealed that non-sex-biased genes display higher variation than male-biased or female-biased genes. Sex-biased genes evolve at a slow rate in protein coding sequences and gene expression and have a pattern of evolution that differs from those of social haplodiploid insects and diploid animals. Genes with high evolutionary rates are more related to non-sex-biased traits—such as nutrition, immune system, and detoxification—than to sex-biased traits, indicating that the evolution of protein coding sequences and gene expression has been mainly driven by non-sex-biased traits.


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