Project description:Overall, the study aims at obtaining a comprehensive picture of the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, transcriptome using high-coverage RNA-seq of sexed whole-insect samples collected at different developmental time points. This experiment focuses on male and female transcriptomes from 4th instar larvae at 12 and 36 hours, and 10 day and 20 day adult mosquitoes. Three biological replicates per sex are included for the 4th instar 12 hour transcriptomes. A single female embryonic 20 hour transcriptome is also included, which is paired with a male transcriptome from the same 20h embryonic timepoint within accession number E-MTAB-2583.
Project description:The goal of this study was to lay the groundwork for comparative transcriptomics of sex differences in the brain of wolf spiders, a non-model organism of the pyhlum Euarthropoda, by generating transcriptomes and analyzing gene expression. To examine differences in sex-differential gene expression, short read transcript sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly were performed. Messenger RNA (mRNA) was isolated from dissected brain tissue of male and female subadult and mature wolf spiders (Schizocosa ocreata). The data consist of short read sequences for the two different life stages in each sex. Computational analyses on these data include de novo transcriptome assembly, using Trinity and CAP3 assembly suites, and differential expression analysis using the edgeR package. Sample-specific and combined transcriptomes, gene annotations, and differential expression results are described in this data note and are available from associated database submissions.
Project description:The Anopheles mosquito is one of thousands of species in which sex differences play a central role in their biology, as only females need a blood meal in order to produce eggs. Sex differentiation is regulated by sex chromosomes, but their presence creates a dosage imbalance between males (XY) and females (XX). Dosage compensation (DC) can re-equilibrate the expression of sex-chromosomal genes, but because the molecular mechanisms providing DC have only been studied in a few model organisms, key questions about its evolutionary diversity and functional necessity remain unresolved. Here, we reveal the DC pathway in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. We identified SOA, a previously uncharacterized gene, whose expression is sufficient to induce a global upregulation of X-linked genes. Sex-specific alternative splicing prevents the production of a functional SOA protein in females. The male SOA isoform encodes a DNA-binding protein that recognizes the promoters of X chromosomal genes through a CA repeat sequence. Male mosquitos lacking SOA exhibit a chromosome-wide downregulation of the X, which is compatible with viability, but causes a developmental delay. Thus, our molecular analysis of the first DC master regulator in a non-model organism elucidates the evolutionary steps leading to the establishment of a chromosome-specific fine-tuning mechanism.
Project description:Malaria gametocytes, the precursors of gametes, is the stage essential for malaria transmission to the mosquito vector. In the circulation they arise from asexual erythrocytic stages and then develop into mature females and males. Identification of sex-specific transcription factors is a key to understand biology of this stage. However, despite of intensive studies, none of them have been identified yet. In this paper we report an AP2 family transcription factor AP2-FG is responsible for female-specific gene expression.
Project description:Embryonic exposure to the endocrine disruptor vinclozolin during gonadal sex determination promotes an epigenetic reprogramming of the male germ-line that is associated with transgenerational adult onset disease states. Further analysis of this transgenerational phenotype on the brain demonstrated reproducible changes in the brain transcriptome three generations (F3) removed from the exposure. The transgenerational alterations in the male and female brain transcriptomes were distinct. In the males, the expression of 92 genes in the hippocampus and 276 genes in the amygdala were transgenerationally altered. In the females, the expression of 1,301 genes in the hippocampus and 172 genes in the amygdala were transgenerationally altered. Analysis of specific gene sets demonstrated that several brain signaling pathways were influenced including those involved in axon guidance and long-term potentiation. An investigation of behavior demonstrated that the vinclozolin F3 generation males had a decrease in anxiety-like behavior, while the females had an increase in anxiety-like behavior. These observations demonstrate that an embryonic exposure to an environmental compound appears to promote a reprogramming of brain development that correlates with transgenerational sex-specific alterations in the brain transcriptomes and behavior. Observations are discussed in regards to environmental and transgenerational influences on the etiology of brain disease. Keywords: expression analysis, transgenerational changes due to vinclozolin
Project description:The Anopheles mosquito is one of thousands of species in which sex differences play a central role in their biology, as only females need a blood meal in order to produce eggs. Sex differentiation is regulated by sex chromosomes, but their presence creates a dosage imbalance between males (XY) and females (XX). Dosage compensation (DC) can re-equilibrate the expression of sex-chromosomal genes, but because DC mechanisms have only been fully characterized in a few model organisms, key questions about its evolutionary diversity and functional necessity remain unresolved. Here we report the discovery of a previously uncharacterized gene (SOA) as a master regulator of DC in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Sex-specific alternative splicing prevents functional SOA protein expression in females. The male isoform encodes a DNA-binding protein that binds the promoters of active X chromosomal genes. Expressing male SOA is sufficient to induce DC in female cells. Male mosquitoes lacking SOA or female mosquitos ectopically expressing the male isoform exhibit X chromosome misregulation, which is compatible with viability but causes developmental delay. Thus, our molecular analysis of the first DC master regulator in a non-model organism elucidates the evolutionary steps leading to the establishment of a chromosome-specific fine-tuning mechanism.
Project description:The Anopheles mosquito is one of thousands of species in which sex differences play a central role in their biology, as only females need a blood meal in order to produce eggs. Sex differentiation is regulated by sex chromosomes, but their presence creates a dosage imbalance between males (XY) and females (XX). Dosage compensation (DC) can re-equilibrate the expression of sex-chromosomal genes, but because DC mechanisms have only been fully characterized in a few model organisms, key questions about its evolutionary diversity and functional necessity remain unresolved. Here we report the discovery of a previously uncharacterized gene (SOA) as a master regulator of DC in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Sex-specific alternative splicing prevents functional SOA protein expression in females. The male isoform encodes a DNA-binding protein that binds the promoters of active X chromosomal genes. Expressing male SOA is sufficient to induce DC in female cells. Male mosquitoes lacking SOA or female mosquitos ectopically expressing the male isoform exhibit X chromosome misregulation, which is compatible with viability but causes developmental delay. Thus, our molecular analysis of the first DC master regulator in a non-model organism elucidates the evolutionary steps leading to the establishment of a chromosome-specific fine-tuning mechanism.
Project description:The Anopheles mosquito is one of thousands of species in which sex differences play a central role in their biology, as only females need a blood meal in order to produce eggs. Sex differentiation is regulated by sex chromosomes, but their presence creates a dosage imbalance between males (XY) and females (XX). Dosage compensation (DC) can re-equilibrate the expression of sex-chromosomal genes, but because DC mechanisms have only been fully characterized in a few model organisms, key questions about its evolutionary diversity and functional necessity remain unresolved. Here we report the discovery of a previously uncharacterized gene (SOA) as a master regulator of DC in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Sex-specific alternative splicing prevents functional SOA protein expression in females. The male isoform encodes a DNA-binding protein that binds the promoters of active X chromosomal genes. Expressing male SOA is sufficient to induce DC in female cells. Male mosquitoes lacking SOA or female mosquitos ectopically expressing the male isoform exhibit X chromosome misregulation, which is compatible with viability but causes developmental delay. Thus, our molecular analysis of the first DC master regulator in a non-model organism elucidates the evolutionary steps leading to the establishment of a chromosome-specific fine-tuning mechanism.
Project description:Male and female disease states differ in their prevalence, treatment responses, and survival rates. In cardiac disease, women almost uniformly fare far worse than men1-3. Though sex plays a critical role in cardiac disease, the mechanisms underlying sex differences in cardiac homeostasis and disease remain unexplained. Here, we reveal sex-specific cardiac transcriptomes and proteomes and show that cardiac sex differences are predominately controlled via post-transcriptional mechanisms. Using a quantitative proteomics-based approach, we characterize differential sex-specific enriched cardiac proteins, protein complexes, and biological sex processes in the context of global genetic diversity of the Collaborative Cross. We show that differences in cardiac protein expression are established by both hormonal and genetic mechanisms and define two additional pathways, one that is SRY dependent and one that is SRY-independent. We also determined the onset of sex-biased protein expression and discovered that sex disparities in heart tissue occur at the earliest stages of heart development, during the period preceding primary mammalian sex determination. This may explain why congenital heart disease, a leading cause of death whose origin is often developmental, is sex biased. Our results reveal the molecular foundations for the differences in cardiac tissue that underlie sex disparities in health, disease, and treatment outcomes.