How sex shapes transcriptome evolution in the songbird brain.

ABSTRACT: Sex differences have captivated scientists for a long time, yet the evolutionary rate of change in sex-biased gene expression has not been directly quantified. To address this issue, we leverage brain gene expression data from male and female songbirds. To do this, we introduce new options for unbounded Brownian motion and variable evolutionary rates among genes in the software package CAGEE (Computational Analysis of Gene Expression Evolution). We applied these new features to 10 focal songbird species, half of which have convergently evolved obligate cavity-nesting, an element of reproductive ecology linked to sex-specific changes in competition. We find that the degree of sex bias - measured as the male:female ratio in expression for each gene - evolves twice as fast on the Z chromosome

SUBMITTER: Miller-Crews I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12393544 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature