title: Widespread sex differences in gene expression and splicing in the adult human brain.
abstract: There is strong evidence to show that men and women differ in terms of neurodevelopment, neurochemistry and susceptibility to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease. The molecular basis of these differences remains unclear. Progress in this field has been hampered by the lack of genome-wide information on sex differences in gene expression and in particular splicing in the human brain. Here we address this issue by using post-mortem adult human brain and spinal cord samples originating from 137 neuropathologically confirmed control individuals to study whole-genome gene expression and splicing in 12 CNS regions. We show that sex differences in gene expression and splicing are widespread in adult human brain, being detectable in all major brain regions and involving 2.5% of all expressed genes. We give examples of genes where sex-biased expression is both disease-relevant and likely to have functional consequences, and provide evidence suggesting that sex biases in expression may reflect sex-biased gene regulatory structures.
authors.affiliation: 1] Reta Lilla Weston Laboratories, Department of Molecular Neuroscience, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK [2] Department of Genetics, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, PO Box 3354, Riyadh 11211, Saudi Arabia [3].
authors.forename: Daniah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trabzuni
authors.forename: Adaikalavan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramasamy
authors.forename: Sabaena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Imran
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Weale
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ryten
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D012326:RNA Splicing; D012737:Sex Factors; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism*