Article
Biology
Peta Hill, Geoffrey M. While, Christopher P. Burridge, Tariq Ezaz, Kirke L. Munch, Mary McVarish, Erik Wapstra
Summary: This study found evidence of sex reversal in the viviparous reptile Carinascincus ocellatus, and showed that the frequency of sex reversal is related to temperature. The study also suggests that XX-biased genotypic sex ratios could produce either male- or female-biased phenotypic sex ratios, depending on the rate of XX sex reversal.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Philipp Kaufmann, Matthew E. Wolak, Arild Husby, Elina Immonen
Summary: The evolution of sexual body size dimorphism in seed beetles primarily depends on female additive genetic variance linked to autosomes, with a strong intersexual genetic correlation with males. Sexual dimorphism evolved in response to male-limited and sexually antagonistic selection, but not under female-limited selection. Y-linked genes alone could change dimorphism significantly, despite the small size and heterochromatin nature of the Y chromosome in C. maculatus.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biology
Leandro M. Velez, Cassandra Van, Timothy Moore, Zhenqi Zhou, Casey Johnson, Andrea L. Hevener, Marcus M. Seldin
Summary: In this study, the genetic correlations of gene expression were investigated to understand how skeletal muscle interacts with metabolic tissues. The study found that there were little relative differences in myokine gene regulation and muscle cell composition between males and females. However, significant cross-tissue enrichments were found to operate in a sex-specific or hormone-dependent fashion, particularly with estradiol. The study also identified several sex-dependent mechanisms of myokine signaling.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Honghuang Lin, Alan C. Kwan, Cecilia Castro-Diehl, Meghan I. Short, Vanessa Xanthakis, Ibrahim M. Yola, Gerran Salto, Gary F. Mitchell, Martin G. Larson, Ramachandran S. Vasan, Susan Cheng
Summary: The drivers of sexual dimorphism in heart failure phenotypes are poorly understood. This study aimed to assess the heritability and contributions of genetics and environment to cardiac traits and their inter-relations in a large community-based cohort. The results showed significant heritability for all traits in both men and women, with no significant differences between sexes. However, there were differences in the genetic and environmental correlations between cardiac structure and function, suggesting potential pathways for sex-based divergent heart failure phenotypes.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shailee S. Shah, Dustin R. Rubenstein
Summary: Animal societies often evolve due to limited natal dispersal and kin clustering, but some species form cooperative groups with low kin structure. This study investigates the causes and consequences of dispersal decisions in male cooperatively breeding superb starlings, showing that an individual's tactic is related to the prenatal environment its parents experience. Mixed-kin societies are stabilized by climate-driven oscillating selection despite potential social conflict.
Article
Neurosciences
Frank R. Wendt, Gita A. Pathak, Kritika Singh, Murray B. Stein, Karestan C. Koenen, John H. Krystal, Joel Gelernter, Lea K. Davis, Renato Polimanti
Summary: This study performed genome-wide association studies of neuroticism separately in males and females, identifying sex-specific genetic and transcriptomic profiles related to neuroticism. It found several molecular pathways that can partially explain the known sex differences in neurotic symptoms and their psychiatric comorbidities.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Isabelle M. Vea, Austin S. Wilcox, W. Anthony Frankino, Alexander W. Shingleton
Summary: Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is a common phenomenon, but the genetic mechanisms behind it and their variations within and among species are poorly understood. This study uses isogenic lineages of Drosophila to measure SSD and demonstrates extensive genetic variation for SSD, primarily driven by higher levels of genetic variation for body size among females than among males. The data suggest that SSD in Drosophila is a consequence of selection on the developmental genetic mechanisms that regulate the plasticity of body size, supporting the condition dependence hypothesis of sexual dimorphism.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yanyu Xiao, Jingjing Wang, Jiaqi Li, Peijing Zhang, Jingyu Li, Yincong Zhou, Qing Zhou, Ming Chen, Xin Sheng, Zhihong Liu, Xiaoping Han, Guoji Guo
Summary: Understanding the mechanism of genetic associations with human phenotypes is complicated by cellular heterogeneity and linkage disequilibrium. The authors propose an analytical framework, Huatuo, to decode the genetic variation of gene regulation at both cell-type and single-nucleotide levels.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Emily Flynn, Yosuke Tanigawa, Fatima Rodriguez, Russ B. Altman, Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong, Manuel A. Rivas
Summary: This study analyzed sex-specific genetic parameters for 33 quantitative biomarker traits in a large UK Biobank sample, finding that the genetics of most traits are shared between males and females, except for testosterone. Testosterone genetics showed significant sex-specific variants and causal links with various traits, supporting the importance of sex in testosterone genetics.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS
(2021)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Filip Ruzicka, Tim Connallon, Max Reuter
Summary: The study combines quantitative genetics and molecular population genetics to comprehensively analyze the reproductive fitness of male and female Drosophila melanogaster. While no clear evidence of sex differences in the strength of purifying selection was found, differences in ploidy between sexes generate signals of enhanced purifying selection for X-linked loci.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Xiuan Zhang, Jianbo Li, Sirui Chen, Ning Yang, Jiangxia Zheng
Summary: Sex determination and differentiation in birds involves genetic factors controlling the sex determination program, while sex differentiation is influenced by hormones and can be reversed when disturbed. The regulatory mechanism of avian cell autonomous sex identity and sex development is still not clearly understood and requires further exploration. However, avian sex research findings have provided theoretical bases for gender control technologies in poultry production, which are being improved through interdisciplinary cooperation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jose O. Valdebenito, Naerhulan Halimubieke, Adam Z. Lendvai, Jordi Figuerola, Gotz Eichhorn, Tamas Szekely
Summary: The study found that immune system in birds exhibit both sex differences and seasonal variations, with males showing higher immune responses and abilities during the breeding season. The study also revealed that sex differences in immune status are more pronounced during the breeding period compared to the non-breeding period.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Amardeep Singh, Aneil F. Agrawal
Summary: Variance in fitness is generally believed to be greater in males than in females in many species. However, our study on fruit flies showed that the variance in fitness in males is only about one and a half to two times higher than in females. This difference is likely dampened by juvenile mortality. Combining these results with previous studies, we concluded that in this species, the increased genetic drift due to males counterbalances the stronger selection on males, resulting in similar efficacy of selection as if both sexes were female-like.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2022)
Review
Genetics & Heredity
Olivia L. Johnson, Raymond Tobler, Joshua M. Schmidt, Christian D. Huber
Summary: Recent studies have shown that cosmopolitan Drosophila populations exhibit seasonal fluctuation in allele frequencies at hundreds to thousands of genetic loci, which has raised questions about how genetic variation is maintained in natural populations. This has led to further exploration of the drivers, dynamics, and genome-wide impacts of fluctuating selection through theoretical and experimental studies. In this review, the latest evidence for multilocus fluctuating selection in Drosophila and other taxa is evaluated, with a focus on potential genetic and ecological mechanisms that maintain these loci and their effects on neutral genetic variation.
TRENDS IN GENETICS
(2023)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Yangyang Li, Zonggui Chen, Hairong Liu, Qiming Li, Xing Lin, Shuhui Ji, Rui Li, Shaopeng Li, Weiliang Fan, Haiping Zhao, Zuoyan Zhu, Wei Hu, Yu Zhou, Daji Luo
Summary: This study established a comprehensive database ASER by integrating sex reversal-related data of 18 species, providing researchers with a resource to query and reuse organized data to explore the mechanisms and applications of SRGs in animal breeding and human health. The database contains information on sex reversal-associated genes, their regulatory networks, conservation scores for whole genomes, expression dynamics during sex reversal processes, and spatial expression in the gonads. The ASER database is publicly available and can be accessed at http://aser.ihb.ac.cn/.
GENOMICS PROTEOMICS & BIOINFORMATICS
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Zorana Kurbalija Novicic, Ahmed Sayadi, Mihailo Jelic, Goran Arnqvist
BMC EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2020)
Review
Ecology
Goran Arnqvist
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Ecology
Elina Immonen, David Berger, Ahmed Sayadi, Johanna Liljestrand-Ronn, Goran Arnqvist
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Biology
Leslie M. Kollar, Scott Kiel, Ashley J. James, Cody T. Carnley, Danielle N. Scola, Taylor N. Clark, Tikahari Khanal, Todd N. Rosenstiel, Elliott T. Gall, Karl Grieshop, Stuart F. McDaniel
Summary: The study identified genetic variation for fitness in natural populations can be maintained by sexual antagonism and revealed the genetic architecture of sexual dimorphism in a moss species. The findings suggest that the response to sexually antagonistic or sexually concordant selection is dependent on the traits experiencing selection, and sex-specific genetic architectures have evolved to partly resolve multivariate genetic constraints.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biology
Basabi Bagchi, Quentin Corbel, Imroze Khan, Ellen Payne, Devshuvam Banerji, Johanna Liljestrand-Ronn, Ivain Martinossi-Allibert, Julian Baur, Ahmed Sayadi, Elina Immonen, Goran Arnqvist, Irene Soderhall, David Berger
Summary: Our study reveals that female seed beetles have higher phenoloxidase (PO) activity compared to males, and there are sex differences in the expression of genes in the prophenoloxidase activating cascade. Experimental evolution under enforced monogamy led to a decrease in female PO activity and an increase in tolerance to bacterial infection unrelated to mating. Additionally, female PO activity is correlated with male genitalia harmfulness across 12 species of seed beetles, suggesting that sexual conflict influences sexual dimorphisms in immunity in this group of insects.
Article
Biology
Goran Arnqvist, Karl Grieshop, Cosima Hotzy, Johanna Ronn, Michal Polak, Locke Rowe
Summary: The study found that male genital spines in seed beetles have a direct negative impact on female fecundity, but females mating with males from long-spine lines produced more offspring, indicating the presence of indirect effects. Females adapt to male spines through evolutionary selection, influenced by multiple simultaneous processes that affect mating and fertilization biases.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Karl Grieshop, Paul L. Maurizio, Goran Arnqvist, David Berger
Summary: The study found that genetic variation for fitness in males reflects the presence of (partially) recessive deleterious alleles, suggesting that the population's mutation load has greater potential to be purged via selection in males. This contributes to our understanding of the prevalence of sexual reproduction and the maintenance of genetic variation in fitness-related traits.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Li He, Ivy W. Chen, Zan Zhang, Wenping Zheng, Ahmed Sayadi, Lei Wang, Wen Sang, Rui Ji, Jiaxin Lei, Goran Arnqvist, Chaoliang Lei, Keyan Zhu-Salzman
Summary: Research on cowpea bruchids has revealed that insects exhibit high tolerance to hypoxia, with molecular mechanisms involving the regulation of common cis-elements and proteins such as AREB6 and CmZFH. These components play a crucial role in the expression of genes under hypoxic conditions, aiding in insect survival.
INSECT BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Goran Arnqvist, Johanna Ronn, Christopher Watson, Julieta Goenaga, Elina Immonen
Summary: Male-female coevolution takes different paths among closely related species, and resource competition affects metabolic processes, thereby influencing life history evolution and reproduction.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Goran Arnqvist, Ahmed Sayadi
Summary: Efforts to understand the genomic basis of incipient speciation are hindered by a mismatch between our knowledge of ecology and genetics and the tools we use. This study focuses on the role of stabilizing selection in polygenic traits in population divergence, using phenotypically informed integrative approach and genome-wide variation. The findings suggest that metabolic genes under selective constraints play a significant role in population divergence and incipient speciation, although it's difficult to exclude other scenarios.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Elina Immonen, Ahmed Sayadi, Biljana Stojkovic, Uros Savkovic, Mirko Dordevic, Johanna Liljestrand-Roenn, R. Axel W. Wiberg, Goeran Arnqvist
Summary: This study investigates the evolution of sex-specific gene expression related to life history divergence in seed beetles. The results show that different reproductive strategies are associated with changes in gene expression, particularly reduced sex differences in long-lived beetles. Functional enrichment analysis reveals differences in gene categories related to aging between different life history strategies.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Goran Arnqvist, Locke Rowe
Summary: Evolutionary genetics has been trying to understand how functional genes under selection remain polymorphic in natural populations. The authors highlight the potentially ubiquitous ecological effect of negative frequency dependency, which can maintain genetic variation. They suggest that negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS) on major effect loci can generate epistatic selection involving numerous loci and promote the maintenance of polygenic variation.
Article
Biology
Jesper Boman, Goran Arnqvist
Summary: Our understanding of genome size evolution is incomplete and genome size does not reflect organismal complexity. We hypothesized that larger genomes may help organisms cope with environmental variation. Using the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, we conducted experiments exposing populations with different genome sizes to environmental stress and assessed their fitness. We found that populations with larger genomes were better buffered against environmental stress in adult fitness, but not juvenile fitness. The genetic correlation between genome size and adult fitness supports a role for natural selection in genome size evolution.
