Sex-biased gene expression in the developing brain: implications for autism spectrum disorders.

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorders affect significantly more males than females. Understanding sex differences in normal human brain development may provide insight into the mechanism(s) underlying this disparity; however, studies of sex differences in brain development at the genomic level are lacking. Here, we report a re-analysis of sex-specific gene expression from a recent large transcriptomic study of normal human brain development, to determine whether sex-biased genes relate to specific mechanistic processes. We discovered that male-biased genes are enriched for the processes of extracellular matrix formation/glycoproteins, immune response, chromatin, and cell cytoskeleton. We highlight that these pathways have been repeatedly implicated in autism and demonstrate that autism candidate genes

SUBMITTER: Ziats MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3653724 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature