Published online before print
July 6, 2006 Genome Research, DOI: 10.1101/gr.5217506
OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE
Letter
Tissue-specific expression and regulation of sexually dimorphic genes in mice
Xia Yang1,
Eric E. Schadt2,
Susanna Wang3,
Hui Wang4,
Arthur P. Arnold5,
Leslie Ingram-Drake3,
Thomas A. Drake6 and
Aldons J. Lusis1,3,7
1 Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA;
2 Rosetta Inpharmatics, LLC, a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Merck & Co. Inc., Seattle, Washington 98109, USA;
3 Department of Human Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA;
4 Department of Statistics, College of Letters and Science, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA;
5 Department of Physiological Science, and Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology of the Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA;
6 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
We report a comprehensive analysis of gene expression differences between sexes in multiple somatic tissues of 334 mice derived from an intercross between inbred mouse strains C57BL/6J and C3H/HeJ. The analysis of a large number of individuals provided the power to detect relatively small differences in expression between sexes, and the use of an intercross allowed analysis of the genetic control of sexually dimorphic gene expression. Microarray analysis of 23,574 transcripts revealed that the extent of sexual dimorphism in gene expression was much greater than previously recognized. Thus, thousands of genes showed sexual dimorphism in liver, adipose, and muscle, and hundreds of genes were sexually dimorphic in brain. These genes exhibited highly tissue-specific patterns of expression and were enriched for distinct pathways represented in the Gene Ontology database. They also showed evidence of chromosomal enrichment, not only on the sex chromosomes, but also on several autosomes. Genetic analyses provided evidence of the global regulation of subsets of the sexually dimorphic genes, as the transcript levels of a large number of these genes were controlled by several expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) hotspots that exhibited tissue-specific control. Moreover, many tissue-specific transcription factor binding sites were found to be enriched in the sexually dimorphic genes.
7 Corresponding author.
E-mail jlusis{at}mednet.ucla.edu; fax (310) 794-7345.
Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.5217506
[Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org. The microarray data from this study have been deposited to GEO under accession nos. GSE2814, GSE3086, GSE3087, and GSE3088.]

CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
M. G. Holloway, G. D. Miles, A. A. Dombkowski, and D. J. Waxman
Liver-Specific Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor-4{alpha} Deficiency: Greater Impact on Gene Expression in Male than in Female Mouse Liver
Mol. Endocrinol.,
May 1, 2008;
22(5):
1274 - 1286.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
C. D. Campbell, A. Kirby, J. Nemesh, M. J. Daly, and J. N. Hirschhorn
A survey of allelic imbalance in F1 mice
Genome Res.,
April 1, 2008;
18(4):
555 - 563.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
R. E. Everts, P. Chavatte-Palmer, A. Razzak, I. Hue, C. A. Green, R. Oliveira, X. Vignon, S. L. Rodriguez-Zas, X. C. Tian, X. Yang, et al.
Aberrant gene expression patterns in placentomes are associated with phenotypically normal and abnormal cattle cloned by somatic cell nuclear transfer
Physiol Genomics,
March 10, 2008;
33(1):
65 - 77.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
P. Bermejo-Alvarez, D. Rizos, D. Rath, P. Lonergan, and A. Gutierrez-Adan
Epigenetic differences between male and female bovine blastocysts produced in vitro
Physiol Genomics,
January 17, 2008;
32(2):
264 - 272.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
D. T. Valenta, J. J. Bulgrien, D. J. Bonnet, and L. K. Curtiss
Macrophage PLTP is atheroprotective in LDLr-deficient mice with systemic PLTP deficiency
J. Lipid Res.,
January 1, 2008;
49(1):
24 - 32.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
R. B.H. Williams, E. K.F. Chan, M. J. Cowley, and P. F.R. Little
The influence of genetic variation on gene expression
Genome Res.,
December 1, 2007;
17(12):
1707 - 1716.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. E. Mank, L. Hultin-Rosenberg, E. Axelsson, and H. Ellegren
Rapid Evolution of Female-Biased, but Not Male-Biased, Genes Expressed in the Avian Brain
Mol. Biol. Evol.,
December 1, 2007;
24(12):
2698 - 2706.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
A. J. Lusis, J. Yu, and S. S. Wang
The Problem of Passenger Genes in Transgenic Mice
Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol.,
October 1, 2007;
27(10):
2100 - 2103.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
T. D. Henry, C. L. Grines, M. W. Watkins, N. Dib, G. Barbeau, R. Moreadith, T. Andrasfay, and R. L. Engler
Effects of Ad5FGF-4 in Patients With Angina: An Analysis of Pooled Data From the AGENT-3 and AGENT-4 Trials
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol.,
September 11, 2007;
50(11):
1038 - 1046.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
K. H. Clodfelter, G. D. Miles, V. Wauthier, M. G. Holloway, X. Zhang, P. Hodor, W. J. Ray, and D. J. Waxman
Role of STAT5a in regulation of sex-specific gene expression in female but not male mouse liver revealed by microarray analysis
Physiol Genomics,
September 11, 2007;
31(1):
63 - 74.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
L. Faulkner, D. M. Altmann, S. Ellmerich, I. Huhtaniemi, G. Stamp, and S. Sriskandan
Sexual Dimorphism in Superantigen Shock Involves Elevated TNF-{alpha} and TNF-{alpha} induced Hepatic Apoptosis
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.,
September 1, 2007;
176(5):
473 - 482.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
S. S. Wang, E. E. Schadt, H. Wang, X. Wang, L. Ingram-Drake, W. Shi, T. A. Drake, and A. J. Lusis
Identification of Pathways for Atherosclerosis in Mice: Integration of Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis and Global Gene Expression Data
Circ. Res.,
August 3, 2007;
101(3):
e11 - e30.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. E. Mank, E. Axelsson, and H. Ellegren
Fast-X on the Z: Rapid evolution of sex-linked genes in birds
Genome Res.,
May 1, 2007;
17(5):
618 - 624.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
H. Meng, I. Vera, N. Che, X. Wang, S. S. Wang, L. Ingram-Drake, E. E. Schadt, T. A. Drake, and A. J. Lusis
Identification of Abcc6 as the major causal gene for dystrophic cardiac calcification in mice through integrative genomics
PNAS,
March 13, 2007;
104(11):
4530 - 4535.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
R. Vikstedt, D. Ye, J. Metso, R. B. Hildebrand, T. J.C. Van Berkel, C. Ehnholm, M. Jauhiainen, and M. Van Eck
Macrophage Phospholipid Transfer Protein Contributes Significantly to Total Plasma Phospholipid Transfer Activity and Its Deficiency Leads to Diminished Atherosclerotic Lesion Development
Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol.,
March 1, 2007;
27(3):
578 - 586.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
P. Ciana, A. Biserni, L. Tatangelo, C. Tiveron, A. F. Sciarroni, L. Ottobrini, and A. Maggi
A Novel Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Responsive Element-Luciferase Reporter Mouse Reveals Gender Specificity of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Activity in Liver
Mol. Endocrinol.,
February 1, 2007;
21(2):
388 - 400.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
C. Voolstra, D. Tautz, P. Farbrother, L. Eichinger, and B. Harr
Contrasting evolution of expression differences in the testis between species and subspecies of the house mouse
Genome Res.,
January 1, 2007;
17(1):
42 - 49.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
B. K. Rana, P. A. Insel, S. H. Payne, K. Abel, E. Beutler, M. G. Ziegler, N. J. Schork, and D. T. O'Connor
Population-Based Sample Reveals Gene-Gender Interactions in Blood Pressure in White Americans
Hypertension,
January 1, 2007;
49(1):
96 - 106.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
E. E. Schadt and P. Y. Lum
Thematic review series: Systems Biology Approaches to Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disorders. Reverse engineering gene networks to identify key drivers of complex disease phenotypes
J. Lipid Res.,
December 1, 2006;
47(12):
2601 - 2613.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
X. Chen, X. Wang, S. Hossain, F. A. O'Neill, D. Walsh, L. Pless, K. V. Chowdari, V. L. Nimgaonkar, S. G. Schwab, D. B. Wildenauer, et al.
Haplotypes spanning SPEC2, PDZ-GEF2 and ACSL6 genes are associated with schizophrenia
Hum. Mol. Genet.,
November 15, 2006;
15(22):
3329 - 3342.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
Males and Females Are Different After All
Journal Watch Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,
September 20, 2006;
2006(920):
3 - 3.
[Full Text]
|
 |
|
|
|