Sex-specific gene expression in Xenopus laevis laryngeal muscle


SOCIETY FOR INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY
2021 VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING (VAM)
January 3 – Febuary 28, 2021

Meeting Abstract


11-6  Sat Jan 2  Sex-specific gene expression in Xenopus laevis laryngeal muscle Paulis, D; Velosa, A; Zornik, E; Ryba, T; Leininger, E*; New College of Florida; New College of Florida; Reed College; New College of Florida; New College of Florida eleininger@ncf.edu

African clawed frogs (Xenopus) use species- and sex-specific vocalizations to mediate reproductive behaviors. To generate these vocalizations, Xenopus have sexually dimorphic laryngeal morphology and physiology, including differences in laryngeal size and fiber composition. We hypothesized that these sexually dimorphic characteristics may arise from differentially expressed genes within each species of Xenopus. Using RNAseq, we analyzed levels of gene expression in Xenopus laevis male and female laryngeal muscle (n=5) and found 268 transcripts with expression differences above a 4-fold change and 32 genes with expression differences above a 16-fold change with regard to sex. We then characterized genes of interest using data from sequence alignment and gene ontology databases to reveal molecular function, cellular components, and biological processes related to each gene. Muscle transcriptome analyses can help us relate differences in gene expression to sexually dimorphic physiology in these frogs and more broadly can be applied to future genomic studies. Future work will use cross-species comparisons to examine the molecular basis of species-specific vocalizations and expand our knowledge of neuromuscular networks.

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