Imperial College London
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Nikolai Windbichler

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences

Reader in Genetics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1650n.windbichler

 
 
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Location

 

Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Papa:2017:10.1101/gr.217216.116,
author = {Papa, F and Windbichler, N and Waterhouse, RM and Cagnetti, A and D'Amato, R and Persampieri, T and Lawniczak, MKN and Nolan, T and Papathanos, PA},
doi = {10.1101/gr.217216.116},
journal = {GENOME RESEARCH},
pages = {1536--1548},
title = {Rapid evolution of female-biased genes among four species of Anopheles malaria mosquitoes},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/gr.217216.116},
volume = {27},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Understanding how phenotypic differences between males and females arise from the sex-biased expression of nearly identical genomes can reveal important insights into the biology and evolution of a species. Among Anopheles mosquito species, these phenotypic differences include vectorial capacity, as it is only females that blood feed and thus transmit human malaria. Here, we use RNA-seq data from multiple tissues of four vector species spanning the Anopheles phylogeny to explore the genomic and evolutionary properties of sex-biased genes. We find that, in these mosquitoes, in contrast to what has been found in many other organisms, female-biased genes are more rapidly evolving in sequence, expression, and genic turnover than male-biased genes. Our results suggest that this atypical pattern may be due to the combination of sex-specific life history challenges encountered by females, such as blood feeding. Furthermore, female propensity to mate only once in nature in male swarms likely diminishes sexual selection of post-reproductive traits related to sperm competition among males. We also develop a comparative framework to systematically explore tissue- and sex-specific splicing to document its conservation throughout the genus and identify a set of candidate genes for future functional analyses of sex-specific isoform usage. Finally, our data reveal that the deficit of male-biased genes on the X Chromosomes in Anopheles is a conserved feature in this genus and can be directly attributed to chromosome-wide transcriptional regulation that de-masculinizes the X in male reproductive tissues.
AU  - Papa,F
AU  - Windbichler,N
AU  - Waterhouse,RM
AU  - Cagnetti,A
AU  - D'Amato,R
AU  - Persampieri,T
AU  - Lawniczak,MKN
AU  - Nolan,T
AU  - Papathanos,PA
DO  - 10.1101/gr.217216.116
EP  - 1548
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 1088-9051
SP  - 1536
TI  - Rapid evolution of female-biased genes among four species of Anopheles malaria mosquitoes
T2  - GENOME RESEARCH
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/gr.217216.116
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000408790600007&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/51978
VL  - 27
ER  -
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