title: Autosomal genetic control of human gene expression does not differ across the sexes.
abstract: Despite their nearly identical genomes, males and females differ in risk, incidence, prevalence, severity and age-at-onset of many diseases. Sexual dimorphism is also seen in human autosomal gene expression, and has largely been explored by examining the contribution of genotype-by-sex interactions to variation in gene expression.
  
  
  
  In this study, we use data from a mixture of pedigree and unrelated individuals with verified European ancestry to investigate the sex-specific genetic architecture of gene expression measured in whole blood across n=1048 males and n=1005 females by treating gene expression intensities in the sexes as two distinct traits and estimating the genetic correlation (rG) between them. These correlations measure the similarity of the combined additive genetic effects of all single-nucleotide polymorphisms across the autosomal chromosomes, and thus the level of common genetic control of gene expression across the sexes. Genetic correlations are estimated across the sexes for the expression levels of 12,528 autosomal gene expression probes using bivariate GREML, and tested for differences in autosomal genetic control of gene expression across the sexes. Overall, no deviation of the distribution of test statistics is observed from that expected under the null hypothesis of a common autosomal genetic architecture for gene expression across the sexes.
  
  
  
  These results suggest that males and females share the same common genetic control of gene expression.
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. i.kassam@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Irfahan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6150-5614
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kassam
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lloyd-Jones
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Holloway
authors.affiliation: Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Kerrin S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Small
authors.affiliation: School of Biology and Centre for Integrative Genomics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bakshi
authors.affiliation: Estonian Genome Centre, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Metspalu
authors.affiliation: School of Biology and Centre for Integrative Genomics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Tim D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Spector
authors.affiliation: Estonian Genome Centre, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Tonu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Esko
authors.affiliation: Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.|QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Grant W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.|Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.|University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Translational Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Visscher
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Allan F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: McRae
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010375:Pedigree; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
keywords: Gene expression; Genetic correlation; Sex-specific genetic architecture