RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Sex differences in gene expression in the human fetal brain
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 483636
DO 10.1101/483636
A1 Heath E. O’Brien
A1 Eilis Hannon
A1 Aaron R. Jeffries
A1 William Davies
A1 Matthew J. Hill
A1 Richard J. Anney
A1 Michael C. O’Donovan
A1 Jonathan Mill
A1 Nicholas J. Bray
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/30/483636.abstract
AB Widespread structural, chemical and molecular differences have been reported between the male and female human brain. Although several neurodevelopmental disorders are more commonly diagnosed in males, little is known regarding sex differences in early human brain development. Here, we used RNA sequencing data from a large collection of human brain samples from the second trimester of gestation (N = 120) to assess sex biases in gene expression within the human fetal brain. In addition to 43 genes (102 Ensembl transcripts) transcribed from the Y-chromosome in males, we detected sex differences in the expression of 2558 autosomal genes (2723 Ensembl transcripts) and 155 genes on the X-chromosome (207 Ensembl transcripts) at a false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.1. Genes exhibiting sex-biased expression in human fetal brain are enriched for high-confidence risk genes for autism and other developmental disorders. Male-biased genes are enriched for expression in neural progenitor cells, whereas female-biased genes are enriched for expression in Cajal-Retzius cells and glia. All gene- and transcript-level data are provided as an online resource (available at http://fgen.psycm.cf.ac.uk/FBSeq1) through which researchers can search, download and visualize data pertaining to sex biases in gene expression during early human brain development.