%0 Journal Article %A Samuel C. Lee %A Thomas P. Quinn %A Jerry Lai %A Sek Won Kong %A Irva Hertz-Picciotto %A Stephen J. Glatt %A Tamsyn M. Crowley %A Svetha Venkatesh %A Thin Nguyen %T Solving for X: evidence for sex-specific autism biomarkers across multiple transcriptomic studies %D 2018 %R 10.1101/309518 %J bioRxiv %P 309518 %X Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a markedly heterogeneous condition with a varied phenotypic presentation. Its high concordance among siblings, as well as its clear association with specific genetic disorders, both point to a strong genetic etiology. However, the molecular basis of ASD is still poorly understood, although recent studies point to the existence of sex-specific ASD pathophysiologies and biomarkers. Despite this, little is known about how exactly sex influences the gene expression signatures of ASD probands. In an effort to identify sex-dependent biomarkers (and characterise their function), we present an analysis of a single paired-end post-mortem brain RNA-Seq data set and a meta-analysis of six blood-based microarray data sets. Here, we identify several genes with sex-dependent dysregulation, and many more with sex-independent dysregulation. Moreover, through pathway analysis, we find that these sex-independent biomarkers have substantially different biological roles than the sex-dependent biomarkers, and that some of these pathways are ubiquitously dysregulated in both post-mortem brain and blood. We conclude by synthesizing the discovered biomarker profiles with the extant literature, by highlighting the advantage of studying sex-specific dysregulation directly, and by making a call for new transcriptomic data that comprise large female cohorts. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/05/04/309518.full.pdf