Differential expression and alternative splicing provide unique mechanisms for tissue, age, and sex differences in fence lizard transcriptomes
We sequenced mRNA from the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) to characterize differential gene expression and differential splicing by factors of tissue, age, and sex. We investigated the overlap between these two regulatory processes in differentiating genes, we measured tissue-specificity of expression of genes differentially expressed and spliced by age and sex, and we compared average nucleotide diversity of differentially expressed/spliced genes against the nucleotide diversity of unbiased genes. Our study demonstrated that differentially expressed genes and differentially spliced genes overlap less often than expected. Further, we found that age-biased genes were strongly tissue-specific in expression compared to unbiased genes, extending patterns previously observed amongst sex-biased genes. Finally, we find some evidence of heightened nucleotide diversity in tissue-biased differentially expressed genes.