içgörü - Evolutionary Computation - # Evolution of Sex-Biased Gene Expression

Rapid Evolutionary Turnover and Overlapping Variances of Sex-Biased Gene Expression Patterns Challenge the Notion of Binary Sexes

Q: How do the evolutionary patterns of sex-biased gene expression differ between species with varying degrees of sexual dimorphism?

The evolutionary patterns of sex-biased gene expression vary significantly between species with different levels of sexual dimorphism. In the study mentioned, the researchers analyzed data from natural populations of mice across different subspecies and species, spanning an evolutionary distance of 2 million years. They found that even within these short phylogenetic distances, there was an extremely fast turnover of sex-biased gene expression and rapid adaptive protein evolution. This indicates that sex-biased gene expression is subject to rapid evolutionary changes, with no long-term stability for male or female expression characteristics. Furthermore, the study revealed that the turnover of genes with sex-biased expression is particularly high for non-gonadal tissues, with fewer than 10% of genes shared between different taxa for organs like the brain and heart. In contrast, the gonadal tissues showed a higher percentage of shared genes but still exhibited substantial turnover of sex-biased genes. This suggests that the evolution of sex-biased gene expression is dynamic and can vary greatly even among closely related species.

Q: How do the potential mechanisms underlying the rapid turnover and reversals of sex-biased gene expression relate to sexual conflict and antagonistic coevolution?

The rapid turnover and reversals of sex-biased gene expression observed in the study are closely related to sexual conflict and antagonistic coevolution. Sexual conflict arises from the divergent reproductive interests of males and females, leading to continuous evolutionary pressure for each sex to maximize its reproductive success. This conflict can drive the evolution of sex-specific traits and behaviors, including sex-biased gene expression. The fast turnover of sex-biased gene expression can be attributed to the ongoing evolutionary arms race between males and females, where each sex evolves strategies to outcompete the other. Genes with sex-biased expression are likely involved in mediating these conflicts, leading to rapid changes in their expression patterns over evolutionary time scales. The high variability and turnover of these genes reflect the dynamic nature of sexual conflict and the constant adaptation to changing selective pressures. Overall, the rapid turnover and reversals of sex-biased gene expression highlight the intricate interplay between sexual conflict, antagonistic coevolution, and the evolution of sex-specific traits in shaping the genetic architecture of males and females.

Q: How might the overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression impact our understanding of sex differences in health, disease, and response to treatments?

The overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression have significant implications for our understanding of sex differences in health, disease, and response to treatments. The study revealed that individual variation in sex-biased gene expression often results in overlapping distributions between males and females, making it challenging to classify individuals into distinct sex categories based on gene expression alone. This overlapping variability suggests that the traditional binary classification of sexes may not fully capture the complexity of sex-related phenotypic traits. In the context of health and disease, the overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression imply that individuals may exhibit a spectrum of male and female characteristics, rather than fitting neatly into one category or the other. This has important implications for personalized medicine and the development of sex-specific treatments, as individual responses to therapies may vary widely based on the unique combination of sex-biased gene expression. Overall, the overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression highlight the need for a more nuanced understanding of sex-related differences in health and disease, taking into account the individual variability and complexity of gene expression patterns across different tissues and organs.

Temel Kavramlar

Sex-biased gene expression evolves extremely fast, with rapid turnover of genes associated with sex-biased expression networks, and high individual variation in sex-related phenotypic characters that often overlap between the sexes.

Özet

The study explores the variation and evolutionary patterns of sex-biased gene expression in a large dataset from natural populations of sub-species and species of mice across an evolutionary distance of 2 million years. Key findings:

Thousands of sex-biased genes are identified, but with marked differences in numbers between the non-gonadal organs in the different evolutionary lineages. Only a small percentage of them is conserved in their sex-biased expression patterns among all lineages.
Sex-biased gene expression evolves extremely fast, with an extremely high turnover of genes that become subject to sex-biased expression, and many genes reversing their sex-bias between lineages. This fast turnover is accompanied by higher adaptive amino acid replacement rates in sex-biased genes compared to non-sex-biased genes.
The variances of sex-biased genes are higher than non-sex-biased genes, indicating that they contribute more to individual variation.
A sex-biased gene expression index (SBI) shows that the distributions of individual sex-biases often overlap between the sexes, especially in non-gonadal organs, defying a simple binary sex distinction.
Comparison with human data shows fewer sex-biased genes and stronger overlaps between the sexes than in mice, with very few genes showing conserved sex-biased expression across mice and humans.

The results demonstrate that sex-biased genes are subject to particularly fast evolution, with no long-term stability for male or female expression characteristics, and that individual variation in sex-related phenotypic characters is usually overlapping between the sexes.

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İstatistikler

"The numbers of fixed synonymous and nonsynonymous sites, and the numbers of polymorphic synonymous and nonsynonymous sites at each derived allele frequency were used as input for the adapted R script "asymptoticMK_local.R"."
"For each SNV in each taxon, its type, polymorphic or fixed, was determined, and the allele frequency was calculated if it is polymorphic."

Alıntılar

"Intriguingly, even within these short phylogenetic distances, we find an extremely fast evolutionary turnover of sex-biased gene expression and fast adaptive protein evolution."
"The different organs show a large individual variation in sex-biased gene expression, making it impossible to classify individuals in simple binary terms."
"Hence, the seemingly strong conservation of binary sex-states does not find an equivalent underpinning when one looks at the genetic makeup of the sexes."

Önemli Bilgiler Şuradan Elde Edildi

Fast evolutionary turnover and overlapping variances of sex-biased gene expression patterns defy a simple binary classification of sexes

by Xie,... : www.biorxiv.org 05-26-2024

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.22.595301v1

Daha Derin Sorular

How do the evolutionary patterns of sex-biased gene expression differ between species with varying degrees of sexual dimorphism?

The evolutionary patterns of sex-biased gene expression vary significantly between species with different levels of sexual dimorphism. In the study mentioned, the researchers analyzed data from natural populations of mice across different subspecies and species, spanning an evolutionary distance of 2 million years. They found that even within these short phylogenetic distances, there was an extremely fast turnover of sex-biased gene expression and rapid adaptive protein evolution. This indicates that sex-biased gene expression is subject to rapid evolutionary changes, with no long-term stability for male or female expression characteristics.
Furthermore, the study revealed that the turnover of genes with sex-biased expression is particularly high for non-gonadal tissues, with fewer than 10% of genes shared between different taxa for organs like the brain and heart. In contrast, the gonadal tissues showed a higher percentage of shared genes but still exhibited substantial turnover of sex-biased genes. This suggests that the evolution of sex-biased gene expression is dynamic and can vary greatly even among closely related species.

How do the potential mechanisms underlying the rapid turnover and reversals of sex-biased gene expression relate to sexual conflict and antagonistic coevolution?

The rapid turnover and reversals of sex-biased gene expression observed in the study are closely related to sexual conflict and antagonistic coevolution. Sexual conflict arises from the divergent reproductive interests of males and females, leading to continuous evolutionary pressure for each sex to maximize its reproductive success. This conflict can drive the evolution of sex-specific traits and behaviors, including sex-biased gene expression.
The fast turnover of sex-biased gene expression can be attributed to the ongoing evolutionary arms race between males and females, where each sex evolves strategies to outcompete the other. Genes with sex-biased expression are likely involved in mediating these conflicts, leading to rapid changes in their expression patterns over evolutionary time scales. The high variability and turnover of these genes reflect the dynamic nature of sexual conflict and the constant adaptation to changing selective pressures.
Overall, the rapid turnover and reversals of sex-biased gene expression highlight the intricate interplay between sexual conflict, antagonistic coevolution, and the evolution of sex-specific traits in shaping the genetic architecture of males and females.

How might the overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression impact our understanding of sex differences in health, disease, and response to treatments?

The overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression have significant implications for our understanding of sex differences in health, disease, and response to treatments. The study revealed that individual variation in sex-biased gene expression often results in overlapping distributions between males and females, making it challenging to classify individuals into distinct sex categories based on gene expression alone.
This overlapping variability suggests that the traditional binary classification of sexes may not fully capture the complexity of sex-related phenotypic traits. In the context of health and disease, the overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression imply that individuals may exhibit a spectrum of male and female characteristics, rather than fitting neatly into one category or the other. This has important implications for personalized medicine and the development of sex-specific treatments, as individual responses to therapies may vary widely based on the unique combination of sex-biased gene expression.
Overall, the overlapping distributions of sex-biased gene expression highlight the need for a more nuanced understanding of sex-related differences in health and disease, taking into account the individual variability and complexity of gene expression patterns across different tissues and organs.