2016年10月13日，國際學術(shù)期刊《Genome biology and evolution》在線發(fā)表了中國科學院水生生物研究所何舜平研究組和多倫多大學張兆雷教授合作題為“Both male-biased and female-biased genes evolve faster in fish genomes”的研究論文，研究在魚類性別差異表達基因進化動態(tài)的研究取得新進展。楊連東博士為論文第一作者，何舜平研究員為論文通訊作者。

在地球上的許多物種中，雌性個體與雄性個體之間通常在行為、生理以及外部形態(tài)方面均呈現(xiàn)出顯著的差異。而這種雌雄個體之間的差異主要是由于基因在雌雄個體間表達水平上的差異所導致的。因此，對雌雄性別差異表達基因的研究對于深入理解雌雄個體之間的差異具有重要的意義。

研究組通過深入分析斑馬魚雌雄個體之間不同組織的轉(zhuǎn)錄組數(shù)據(jù)，對斑馬魚中雌雄性別差異表達基因進行了鑒定及進化動態(tài)分析。分析結(jié)果如下：(1)斑馬魚雌雄之間存在大量的性別差異表達基因，且主要來源于性腺;(2)斑馬魚性別差異表達基因多數(shù)是在組織中特異表達的;(3)魚類中雄性高表達基因與雌性高表達基因均發(fā)生了加速進化;(4)魚類中雄性高表達基因與雌性高表達基因均具有減少的最優(yōu)密碼子使用頻率;(5)適應(yīng)性進化參與了斑馬魚性別差異表達基因的進化。

原文鏈接：

Both male-biased and female-biased GENEs evolve faster in fish genomes

原文摘要：

Males and females often display extensive phenotypic differences, and many of these sexual dimorphisms are thought to result from differences between males and females in expression of genes present in both sexes. Sex-biased genes have been shown to exhibit accelerated rates of evolution in a wide array of species, however the cause of this remains enigmatic. In this study, we investigate the extent and evolutionary dynamics of sex-biased gene expression in zebrafish. Our results indicate that both male-biased genes and female-biased genes exhibit accelerated evolution at the protein level. In order to differentiate between adaptive and non-adaptive causes, we tested for codon usage bias and signatures of different selective regimes in our sequence data. Our results show that both male- and female-biased genes show signatures consistent with adaptive evolution. In order to test the generality of our findings across fish, we also analyzed publicly available data on sticklebacks, and found results consistent with our findings in zebrafish.