Positive selection and relaxed purifying selection contribute to rapid evolution of male-biased genes in a dioecious flowering plant.

ABSTRACT: Sex-biased genes offer insights into the evolution of sexual dimorphism. Sex-biased genes, especially those with male bias, show elevated evolutionary rates of protein sequences driven by positive selection and relaxed purifying selection in animals. Although rapid sequence evolution of sex-biased genes and evolutionary forces have been investigated in animals and brown algae, less is known about evolutionary forces in dioecious angiosperms. In this study, we separately compared the expression of sex-biased genes between female and male floral buds and between female and male flowers at anthesis in dioecious Trichosanthes pilosa (Cucurbitaceae). In floral buds, sex-biased gene expression was pervasive, and had significantly different roles in sexual dimorphism such as physiology. We

SUBMITTER: Zhao L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10942601 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature