Evolutionary and biomedical implications of sex differences in the primate brain transcriptome

Cayo Biobank Research Unit

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Humans exhibit sex differences in the prevalence of many neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we generated one of the largest multi-brain-region bulk transcriptional datasets for the rhesus macaque and characterized sex-biased gene expression patterns to investigate the translatability of this species for sex-biased neurological conditions. We identify patterns similar to those in humans, which are associated with overlapping regulatory mechanisms, biological processes, and genes implicated in sex-biased human disorders, including autism. We also show that sex-biased genes exhibit greater genetic variance for expression and more tissue-specific expression patterns, which may facilitate rapid evolution of sex-biased genes. Our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms underlying sex-biased disease and support the rhesus macaque model for the translational study of these conditions.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Article number100589
    JournalCell Genomics
    Volume4
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jul 10 2024

    Keywords

    • animal model
    • autism
    • brain evolution
    • comparative neurobiology
    • rhesus macaque
    • sex-biased gene expression

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)
    • Genetics

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