The Institute Colloquium: The evolution of sexual dimorphism and the effects of sex-s
Date
Monday, October 12, 2015 12:45 - 14:00
Speaker
Judith Mank (University College London)
Location
Raiffeisen Lecture Hall, Central Building
Series
Colloquium
Tags
Institute Colloquium
Contact
Url
Males and females of most species share the majority of their genome, and yet they use many of their shared genes in radically different ways. This leads to conflict over optimal transcription and ultimately differences in expression levels between males and females (sex-biased gene expression). These conflicts affect the sex chromosomes and autosomes in different ways, leading to several explicit predictions about the distribution and evolution of sex-biased genes. First, individuals with elevated levels of sexual dimorphism should show exaggerated sex-biased gene expression across the genome. Second, altering sex-specific selection among populations should elicit a response in sex-biased gene expression, and this response should be more pronounced for genes linked to sex chromosomes. Third, the degree of sex-biased expression on the sex chromosomes should correlate with sex chromosome age. Case studies using both comparative and experimental evolutionary frameworks will be presented to address these predictions.