Mating system manipulation and the evolution of sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila
Date
12/12/2017Funder
Grant ID
NE/I014632/1
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Abstract
Sex differences in dioecious animals are pervasive and result from gene expression differences. Elevated sexual selection has been predicted to increase the number and expression of male-biased genes, and experimentally imposing monogamy on Drosophila melanogaster has led to a relative feminisation of the transcriptome. Here, we test this hypothesis further by subjecting another polyandrous species, D. pseudoobscura, to 150 generations of experimental monogamy or elevated polyandry. We find that sex-biased genes do change in expression but, contrary to predictions, there is usually masculinisation of the transcriptome under monogamy, although this depends on tissue and sex. We also identify and describe gene expression changes following courtship experience. Courtship often influences gene expression, including patterns in sex-biased gene expression. Our results confirm that mating system manipulation disproportionately influences sex-biased gene expression but show that the direction of change is dynamic and unpredictable.
Citation
Veltsos , P , Fang , Y , Cossins , A R , Snook , R R & Ritchie , M G 2017 , ' Mating system manipulation and the evolution of sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila ' , Nature Communications , vol. 8 , 2072 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02232-6
Publication
Nature Communications
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2041-1723Type
Journal article
Rights
© The Author(s) 2017. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Description
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council grant (NE/I014632/1) to MGR, RRS & ARC, and an associated NBAF award (NBAF654).Collections
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