Mating Changes Sexually Dimorphic Gene Expression in the Seed Beetle Callosobruchus maculatus.

ABSTRACT: Sexually dimorphic phenotypes arise largely from sex-specific gene expression, which has mainly been characterized in sexually naïve adults. However, we expect sexual dimorphism in transcription to be dynamic and dependent on factors such as reproductive status. Mating induces many behavioral and physiological changes distinct to each sex and is therefore expected to activate regulatory changes in many sex-biased genes. Here, we first characterized sexual dimorphism in gene expression in Callosobruchus maculatus seed beetles. We then examined how females and males respond to mating and how it affects sex-biased expression, both in sex-limited (abdomen) and sex-shared (head and thorax) tissues. Mating responses were largely sex-specific and, as expected, females showed more genes responding

SUBMITTER: Immonen E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5381559 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature