Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
600
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
600 results for “sex-specific”
Gestational Cd exposure in the CD-1 mouse induces sex-specific hepatic insulin insensitivity, obesity and metabolic syndrome in adult female offspring
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Variation in activity rates may explain sex-specific dorsal color patterns in Habronattus jumping spiders
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Pre-fertilisation gamete thermal environment influences reproductive success, unmasking opposing sex-specific responses in Atlantic Salmon
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
PCNSL - sex-specific analyses
<p>This is the data used in the upcoming publication 'Sex-specific differences in primary CNS lymphoma'.</p> <p>Included are:<br> 1. A spreadsheet with MR imaging and histological data, including patient sex<br> 2. Raw histological images</p> <p>If you are interested in the whole dataset (including clinical data and/or raw MRI images) please feel free to contact me.</p>
Experimentally induced intrasexual mating competition and sex-specific evolution in female and male nematodes
Sexual dimorphism in life history traits and their trade-offs is widespread among sexually reproducing animals, and is strongly influenced by the differences in reproductive strategies between the sexes. We investigated how intrasexual competition (pre- and postcopulatory) acted on specific life history traits, important to fitness, and their trade-offs in the outcrossing nematode Caenorhabditis remanei. Here, we imposed strong sex-specific selection through experimental evolution with increased potential for intrasexual competition by skewing the adult sex ratio towards either males or females (1:10 or 10:1) over 30 generations, and subsequently measured the phenotypic response to selection in three traits related to fitness; body size, fecundity and tolerance to heat stress. We observed a stronger response to selection in females for body size and peak fitness, suggesting that females may experience stronger net selection and potentially harbour higher amounts of standing genetic variance compared to males. Our study highlights the importance of investigating direct and indirect effects of intrasexual competition in both sexes in order to capture sex-specific responses and understand the evolution of sexual dimorphism in traits expressed by both sexes.
Sex-specific intergenerational plasticity I: maternal and paternal effects on sons and daughters
<p>1. Intergenerational plasticity or parental effects – when parental environments alter the phenotype of future generations – can influence how organisms cope with environmental change. An intriguing, underexplored possibility is that sex –of both the parent and the offspring – plays an important role in driving the evolution of intergenerational plasticity in both adaptive and nonadaptive ways.</p> <p>2. Here, we evaluate the potential for sex-specific parental effects in a freshwater population of threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) by independently and jointly manipulating maternal and paternal experiences and separately evaluating their phenotypic effects in sons versus daughters. We tested the adaptive hypothesis that daughters are more responsive to cues from their mother, while sons are more responsive to cues from their father.</p> <p>3. We exposed mothers, fathers, or both parents to visual cues of predation risk and measured offspring antipredator traits and brain gene expression.</p> <p>4. Predator-exposed fathers produced sons that were more risk-prone, while predator-exposed mothers produced more anxious sons and daughters. Further, maternal and paternal effects on offspring survival were nonadditive: offspring with a predator-exposed father, but not two predator-exposed parents, had lower survival against live predators. There were also strong sex-specific effects on brain gene expression: exposing mothers versus fathers to predation risk activated different transcriptional profiles in their offspring, and sons and daughters strongly differed in the ways in which their brain gene expression profiles were influenced by parental experience.</p> <p>5. We found little evidence to support the hypothesis that offspring prioritize their same-sex parent's experience. Parental effects varied with both the sex of the parent and the offspring in complicated and nonadditive ways. Failing to account for these sex-specific patterns (e.g., by pooling sons and daughters) would have underestimated the magnitude of parental effects. Altogether, these results draw attention to the potential for sex to influence patterns of intergenerational plasticity and raise new questions about the interface between intergenerational plasticity and sex-specific selective pressures, sexual conflict, and sexual selection. </p>
Data from: Sex-specific effects of experimental ectoparasite infestation on telomere length in great tit nestlings
<p>Telomere length is a biomarker of biological ageing and lifespan in various vertebrate taxa. Evidence is accumulating that telomeres shorten more rapidly when an individual is exposed to environmental stressors. Parasites are potent selective agents that can cause physiological stress directly or indirectly through the activation of the host's immune system. Yet to date, empirical evidence for a role of parasites in telomere dynamics in natural populations is limited.</p> <p>Here we show experimentally that exposure to ectoparasitic hen fleas (<i>Ceratophyllus gallinae</i>) during growth results in shorter telomeres in female, but not male, great tit (<i>Parus major</i>) nestlings. Females had significantly longer telomeres than males when growing up in experimentally deparasitized nests but because of the sex-specific effects of parasitism on telomere length, this sexual dimorphism was absent in birds growing up in experimentally infested nests. Our results provide the first experimental evidence for a role of ectoparasitism in telomere dynamics in a natural vertebrate population, and suggest that the costs of infection manifest in sex-specific ways.</p>
Sex-specific patterns of senescence in artificial insect populations varying in sex-ratio to manipulate reproductive effort
<p><strong>Background:</strong> The disposable soma theory of ageing assumes that organisms optimally trade-off limited resources between reproduction and longevity to maximize fitness. Early reproduction should especially trade-off against late reproduction and longevity because of reduced investment into somatic protection, including immunity. Moreover, as optimal reproductive strategies of males and females differ, sexually dimorphic patterns of senescence may evolve. In particular, as males gain fitness through mating success, sexual competition should be a major factor accelerating male senescence. In a single experiment, we examined these possibilities by establishing artificial populations of the mealworm beetle, <em>Tenebrio molitor</em>, in which we manipulated the sex-ratio to generate variable levels of investment into reproductive effort and sexual competition in males and females.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> As predicted, variation in sex-ratio affected male and female reproductive efforts, with contrasted sex-specific trade-offs between lifetime reproduction, survival and immunity. High effort of reproduction accelerated mortality in females, without affecting immunity, but high early reproductive success was observed only in balanced sex-ratio condition. Male reproduction was costly on longevity and immunity, mainly because of their investment into copulations rather than in sexual competition.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Our results suggest that <em>T. molitor</em> males, like females, maximize fitness through enhanced longevity, partly explaining their comparable longevity. </p>
Environmental, sex-specific, and genetic determinants of infant social behavior in a wild primate
<p>Affiliative social bonds are linked to fitness components in many social mammals. However, despite their importance, little is known about how the tendency to form social bonds develops in young animals, or if the timing of development is heritable and thus can evolve. Using four decades of longitudinal observational data from a wild baboon population, we assessed the environmental determinants of an important social developmental milestone in baboons—the age at which a young animal first grooms a conspecific—and we assessed how the rates at which offspring groom their mothers develops during the juvenile period. We found that grooming development differs between the sexes: female infants groom at an earlier age and reach equal rates of grooming with their mother earlier than males. We also found that age at first grooming for both sexes is weakly heritable (h<sup>2</sup> = 0.043, 95% CI: 0.002 – 0.110). These results show that sex differences in grooming emerge at a young age; that strong, equitable social relationships between mothers and daughters begin very early in life; and that age at first grooming is heritable and therefore can be shaped by natural selection.</p>
Sex-specific associations of the maturation locus vgll3 with exploratory behaviour and boldness in Atlantic salmon juveniles
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Sex-specific transgenerational effects of diet on offspring life history and physiology
<p>Dietary variation in males and females can shape the expression of offspring life histories and physiology. However, the relative contributions of maternal and paternal dietary variation to phenotypic expression of latter generations are currently unknown. We provided male and female <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> grandparents with<em> </em>diets differing in sucrose concentration prior to reproduction, and similarly subjected their grandoffspring to the same treatments. We then investigated the phenotypic consequences of this dietary variation among the grandsons and granddaughters. We observed transgenerational effects of dietary sucrose, mediated through the grandmaternal lineage, which mimic the direct effects of sucrose on lifespan, with opposing patterns across sexes; low sucrose increased female, but decreased male, lifespan. Dietary mismatching of grandoffspring-grandparent diets increased lifespan and reproductive success, and moderated triglyceride levels of grandoffspring, providing insights into the physiological underpinnings of the complex transgenerational effects on life histories.</p>
Sex-specific fear acquisition following early life stress is linked to amygdala and hippocampal purine and glutamate metabolism
<p>Motion tracking dataset used for the paper "<strong><em>Sex-specific fear acquisition following early life stress is linked to amygdala and hippocampal purine and glutamate metabolism</em></strong>", by Joeri Bordes et al.</p> <p><strong><span>Abstract</span></strong></p> <p>Early life stress (ELS) can negatively impact health, increasing the risk of stress-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Importantly, PTSD disproportionately affects women, emphasizing the critical need to explore how sex differences influence the genetic and metabolic neurobiological pathways underlying trauma-related behaviors. This study uses the limited bedding and nesting (LBN) paradigm to model ELS and investigate its sex-specific effects on fear memory formation. Employing innovative unsupervised behavioral classification, the current study reveals distinct behavioral patterns associated with fear acquisition and retrieval in male and female mice following ELS. Females exposed to LBN display heightened active fear responses, contrasting with males. Furthermore, the study examined the crucial link between behavioral regulation and cellular metabolism in key brain regions involved in fear and stress processing. Sex-specific and stress-dependent alterations were observed in purine, pyrimidine, and glutamate metabolism within the basolateral amygdala, the dorsal hippocampus, and the ventral hippocampus. These findings provide crucial insights into the complex interplay between metabolic pathways, the neurobiological underpinnings of fear memory, and stress responses. Importantly, they emphasize the significance of considering sex-specific metabolic alterations when investigating stress-related disorders, opening potential avenues for the development of targeted interventions.</p>
Temporal and spatial variation in sex-specific abundance of the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi)
<p>Understanding the range and behaviour of an invasive species is critical to identify key habitat areas to focus control efforts. Patterns of range use in parasites can differ temporally, across life stages and between sexes. The invasive avian vampire fly, <em>Philornis downsi</em>, spends the larval stage of its life within bird nests, feeding on developing nestlings and causing high levels of mortality and deformation. However, little is known of the ecology and behaviour of the non-parasitic adult fly life stage. Here, we document sex-specific temporal and spatial patterns of abundance of adult avian vampire flies during a single Darwin's finch breeding season. We analyse fly trapping data collected across 7 weeks in the highlands (N = 405 flies) and lowlands (N = 12 flies) of Floreana Island (Galápagos). Lowland catches occurred later in the season, which supports the hypothesis that flies may migrate from the food-rich highlands to the food-poor lowlands once host breeding has commenced. Fly abundance was not correlated with host nesting density (oviposition site) but was correlated with distance to the agricultural zone (feeding site). We consistently caught more males closer to the agricultural zone and more females further away from the agricultural zone. These sex differences suggest that males may be defending or lekking at feeding sites in the agricultural zone for mating. This temporal and sex-specific habitat use of the avian vampire fly is relevant for developing targeted control methods and provides insight into the behavioural ecology of this introduced parasite on the Galápagos Archipelago.</p>
Sex-specific variation in R-loop formation in Drosophila melanogaster
<p>Source Data for manuscript, "Sex-specific variation in R-loop formation in <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>".</p>
IIb-RAD-seq coupled with random forest classification indicates regional population structuring and sex-specific differentiation in salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis)
<p><span>The aquaculture industry has been dealing with salmon lice problems forming serious threats to salmonid farming. Several treatment approaches have been used to control the parasite. Treatment effectiveness must be optimized, and the systematic genetic differences between sub-populations must be studied to monitor louse species and enhance targeted control measures. We have used IIb-RAD sequencing in tandem with a random forest classification algorithm to detect the regional genetic structure of the Norwegian salmon lice and identify important markers for sex differentiation of this species. We identified 19428 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 95 individuals of salmon lice. These SNPs, however, were not able to distinguish differential structure of lice populations. Using the random forest algorithm, we selected 91 SNPs important for geographical classification and 14 SNPs important for sex classification. The geographically important SNP data substantially improved the genetic understanding of the population structure and classified regional demographic clusters along the Norwegian coast. </span><span>We also uncovered SNP markers that could help determine the sex of the salmon louse. </span><span>A large portion of the SNPs identified to be under directional selection were also ranked highly important by random forest. According to our findings, there is a regional population structure of salmon lice associated with the geographical location along the Norwegian coastline.</span></p>
Sex-specific evolution of brain size, brain structure, and covariation with eye size in Trinidadian killifish
<p>Links between contrasting ecological conditions and evolutionary shifts in neurosensory components such as brain and eye size are accumulating. Whether selection operates differently on these traits between sexes is unclear. Trinidadian killifish (<em>Anablepsoides hartii</em>) are located in sites with and without predators. Male killifish from sites without predators have evolved larger brains and eyes than males from sites with predators. These differences in brain size are present early in life but disappear in adult size-classes. Here, we evaluated female brain growth allometries to determine if females exhibit similar size-specific brain size differences between sites that differ in predation intensity. We also quantified brain size, structure, and eye size to determine if these structures coevolve in a sex-specific manner. We found that female brain growth allometries did not differ across populations. Yet, female killifish from sites without predators exhibited a larger cerebellum, optic tectum, and dorsal medulla early in life (prior to maturation), but such differences disappeared in larger size-classes. Females from sites with predators exhibit similar patterns in brain growth as males in those sites, therefore shifts in brain size and structure are driven by differences between sexes in sites without predators. We also found evidence for covariation between brain and eye size in both sexes despite different levels of variation in both structures, suggesting that these structures may covary to fluctuating degrees in sex-specific ways. We conclude that differential investment in brain tissue in sites without predators may be linked to varying reproductive and cognitive demands across the sexes.</p>
Data from: Multilevel and sex-specific selection on competitive traits in North American red squirrels.
Individuals often interact more closely with some members of the population (e.g. offspring, siblings or group members) than they do with other individuals. This structuring of interactions can lead to multilevel natural selection, where traits expressed at the group-level influence fitness alongside individual-level traits. Such multilevel selection can alter evolutionary trajectories, yet is rarely quantified in the wild, especially for species that do not interact in clearly demarcated groups. We quantified multilevel natural selection on two traits, postnatal growth rate and birth date, in a population of North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). The strongest level of selection was typically within-acoustic social neighbourhoods (within 130m of the nest), where growing faster and being born earlier than nearby litters was key, while selection on growth rate was also apparent both within-litters and within-study areas. Higher population densities increased the strength of selection for earlier breeding, but did not influence selection on growth rates. Females experienced especially strong selection on growth rate at the within-litter level, possibly linked to the biased bequeathal of the maternal territory to daughters. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering multilevel and sex-specific selection in wild species, including those that are territorial and sexually monomorphic.
Drosophila melanogaster hosts coevolving with Pseudomonas entomophila pathogen show sex-specific patterns of local adaptation
<p><strong><span>Background:</span></strong></p> <p><span>In spatially structured populations, local adaptation improves organisms' fitness in their native environment. Host and pathogens can rapidly adapt to their local antagonist. Since males and females can differ in their immunocompetence, the patterns of local adaptation can be different between the sexes. However, there is little information about sex differences in local adaptation in host-pathogen systems.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Results:</span></strong></p> <p><span> </span><span>In the current study, we experimentally coevolved four different replicate populations of <em>Drosophila melanogaster </em>(host) and <em>Pseudomonas entomophila</em> (pathogen) along with appropriate controls. We used the four host-pathogen coevolution populations to investigate the occurrence of local adaptation separately in males and females of the coevolving hosts. We also assessed local adaptation in pathogens. We set up a reciprocal infection experiment where we infected each of the four coevolving hosts with their local pathogen or non-local pathogens from the other three replicate populations. We found that overall, male and female hosts had better survivorship when infected with local pathogens, indicating that they were locally adapted. Interestingly, males were more susceptible to non-local pathogens compared to females. In addition, we found no fecundity cost in females infected with either local or non-local pathogens. We found no evidence of local adaptation among the pathogens.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Conclusion:</span></strong></p> <p><span>Our study showed sex-specific adaptation in the coevolving hosts where female hosts had a broader response against allopatric coevolving pathogens with no cost in fecundity. Thus, our results might suggest a novel mechanism that can maintain variation in susceptibility in spatially structured populations.</span></p>
Behavioural and morphological traits influence sex-specific floral resource use by hummingbirds
<p>Research on resource partitioning in plant-pollinator mutualistic systems is mainly concentrated at the levels of species and communities, whereas differences between males and females are typically ignored. Nevertheless, pollinators often show large sexual differences in behaviour and morphology, which may lead to sex-specific patterns of resource use with the potential to differentially affect plant reproduction and diversification. We investigated variation in behavioural and morphological traits between sexes of hummingbird species as potential mechanisms underlying sex-specific flower resource use in ecological communities. To do so, we compiled a dataset of plant-hummingbird interactions based on pollen loads for 31 hummingbird species from 13 localities across the Americas, complemented by data on territorial behaviour (territorial or nonterritorial) and morphological traits (bill length, bill curvature, wing length and body mass). We assessed the extent of intersexual differences in niche breadth and niche overlap in floral resource use across hummingbird species. Then, we tested whether floral niche breadth and overlap between sexes are associated with sexual dimorphism in behavioural or morphological traits of hummingbird species, while accounting for evolutionary relatedness among the species. We found striking differences in patterns of floral resource use between sex. Females had a broader floral niche breadth and were more dissimilar in the plant species visited with respect to males of the same species, resulting in a high level of resource partitioning between sexes. We found that both territoriality and morphological traits were related to sex-specific resource use by hummingbird species. Notably, niche overlap between sexes was greater for territorial than nonterritorial species, and moreover, niche overlap was negatively associated with sexual dimorphism in bill curvature across hummingbird species. These results reveal the importance of behavioural and morphological traits of hummingbird species in sex-specific resource use and that resource partitioning by sex is likely to be an important mechanism to reduce intersexual competition in hummingbirds. These findings highlight the need for better understanding the putative role of intersexual variation in shaping patterns of interactions and plant reproduction in ecological communities.</p>
Parkinson's disease-associated, sex-specific changes in DNA methylation at PARK7 (DJ-1), ATXN1, SLC17A6, NR4A2, and PTPRN2 in cortical neurons
<p>Evidence for epigenetic regulation playing a role in Parkinson's disease (PD) is growing, particularly for DNA methylation. Approximately 90% of PD cases are due to a complex interaction between age, genes, and environmental factors, and epigenetic marks are thought to mediate the relationship between aging, genetics, the environment, and disease risk. To date, there are a small number of published genome-wide studies of DNA methylation in PD, but none accounted for cell-type or sex in their analyses. Given the heterogeneity of bulk brain tissue samples and known sex differences in PD risk, progression, and severity, these are critical variables to account for. In this first genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in an enriched neuronal population from PD post-mortem parietal cortex, we report sex-specific PD-associated methylation changes in <em>PARK7</em> (DJ-1), <em>SLC17A6</em> (VGLUT2), <em>PTPRN2</em> (IA-2β), <em>NR4A2</em> (NURR1), and other genes involved in developmental pathways, neurotransmitter packaging and release, and axon and neuron projection guidance.</p>
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.