Meeting Abstract
Males and females of sexually dimorphic species must produce distinct phenotypes from a single, shared genome, which can be accomplished by differential gene expression between the sexes. Sex-biased gene expression is predicted to increase during ontogeny as sexes transition from monomorphic juveniles to sexually dimorphic adults. However, differential gene expression should be specific not only to sex but also to tissues that are important for the development of dimorphic traits. Previous research in other model and non-model organisms has focused on sex-biased gene expression of adults within a single tissue, overlooking how sex-biased gene expression may change with age and vary across tissues. Thus, studying sex-biased gene expression across developmental stages and different tissues is important for a complete understanding of sexual dimorphism. Using high-throughput RNA sequencing methods, we generated whole transcriptomes of the brain, muscle, and liver from brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei) of ages 1, 4, 8, and 12 months to study sex, age, and tissue specificity of gene expression. Prior work has shown that hepatic gene expression of brown anoles diverges in the sexes between 7 and 14 months, during the development of sexual dimorphism. Comparing this finding with other tissues and an increased number of age points will provide a more complete picture of sex-biased gene expression. This study is crucial for understanding not only how ontogenetic changes in sex-biased gene expression lead to sexual dimorphism, but also how variation in sex-biased gene expression across tissues facilitates the evolution and development of sexual dimorphism.
