{"title":"多基因性状中性别特异性基因表达的进化。","authors":"Ewan Flintham","doi":"10.1093/jeb/voaf050","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Selection often favours different phenotypes in males and females, driving the evolution of sex-specific genetic architectures that facilitate sexual dimorphism. Previous theory based on single-locus models has shown how such architecture can evolve through modifiers of gene expression and allelic dominance in males and females. Here, I consider the evolution of gene expression in polygenic traits experiencing sex-specific selection. In such traits, I find that sexual dimorphism evolves more readily through sex-specific gene amplification, whereby genes differ in their absolute expression levels between the sexes, than through the evolution of sex-specific dominance across loci, which requires strong sexual antagonism. Furthermore, I show that the type of genetic architecture that evolves through sex-specific amplification, namely the number and nature of sex-biased genes, is highly sensitive to the distance between optimal male and female trait values relative to the number of loci contributing to a trait, i.e., to the level of genetic redundancy for sexual dimorphism. Together these results indicate that genetic architectures resulting from sex-specific selection are highly dependent on the genetic basis of the trait of interest and that this creates challenges when interpreting current metrics of sexual antagonism.</p>","PeriodicalId":50198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Evolutionary Biology","volume":" ","pages":"939-951"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The evolution of sex-specific gene expression in polygenic traits.\",\"authors\":\"Ewan Flintham\",\"doi\":\"10.1093/jeb/voaf050\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>Selection often favours different phenotypes in males and females, driving the evolution of sex-specific genetic architectures that facilitate sexual dimorphism. Previous theory based on single-locus models has shown how such architecture can evolve through modifiers of gene expression and allelic dominance in males and females. Here, I consider the evolution of gene expression in polygenic traits experiencing sex-specific selection. In such traits, I find that sexual dimorphism evolves more readily through sex-specific gene amplification, whereby genes differ in their absolute expression levels between the sexes, than through the evolution of sex-specific dominance across loci, which requires strong sexual antagonism. Furthermore, I show that the type of genetic architecture that evolves through sex-specific amplification, namely the number and nature of sex-biased genes, is highly sensitive to the distance between optimal male and female trait values relative to the number of loci contributing to a trait, i.e., to the level of genetic redundancy for sexual dimorphism. Together these results indicate that genetic architectures resulting from sex-specific selection are highly dependent on the genetic basis of the trait of interest and that this creates challenges when interpreting current metrics of sexual antagonism.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":50198,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of Evolutionary Biology\",\"volume\":\" \",\"pages\":\"939-951\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-08-02\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of Evolutionary Biology\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"99\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeb/voaf050\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"生物学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"ECOLOGY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Evolutionary Biology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeb/voaf050","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
The evolution of sex-specific gene expression in polygenic traits.
Selection often favours different phenotypes in males and females, driving the evolution of sex-specific genetic architectures that facilitate sexual dimorphism. Previous theory based on single-locus models has shown how such architecture can evolve through modifiers of gene expression and allelic dominance in males and females. Here, I consider the evolution of gene expression in polygenic traits experiencing sex-specific selection. In such traits, I find that sexual dimorphism evolves more readily through sex-specific gene amplification, whereby genes differ in their absolute expression levels between the sexes, than through the evolution of sex-specific dominance across loci, which requires strong sexual antagonism. Furthermore, I show that the type of genetic architecture that evolves through sex-specific amplification, namely the number and nature of sex-biased genes, is highly sensitive to the distance between optimal male and female trait values relative to the number of loci contributing to a trait, i.e., to the level of genetic redundancy for sexual dimorphism. Together these results indicate that genetic architectures resulting from sex-specific selection are highly dependent on the genetic basis of the trait of interest and that this creates challenges when interpreting current metrics of sexual antagonism.
期刊介绍:
It covers both micro- and macro-evolution of all types of organisms. The aim of the Journal is to integrate perspectives across molecular and microbial evolution, behaviour, genetics, ecology, life histories, development, palaeontology, systematics and morphology.