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600 results for “sex-specific”
Data from: Sex-specific recombination landscape in a species with holocentric chromosomes
<p>Male and female meiosis typically exhibit significant differences in crossover locations along chromosomes. It has been suggested that higher recombination rates at chromosome centers in females counteract centromere-associated meiotic drivers, increasing their chances of segregating into the oocyte rather than to the non-viable polar bodies. Our research, employing the first sex-specific recombination map for an organism lacking defined centromeres revealed parallel recombination landscapes across the sexes, supporting the meiotic drive hypothesis.</p>
Sex-specific relationships between urbanization, parasitism, and plumage coloration in house finches
Historically, studies of condition-dependent signals in animals have been male-centric, but recent work suggests that female ornaments can also communicate individual quality (e.g., disease state, fecundity). There also has been a surge of interest in how urbanization alters signaling traits, but we know little about if and how cities affect signal expression in female animals. We present data of carotenoid-based plumage coloration and coccidian (Isospora spp.) parasite burden in desert and city populations of house finches Haemorhous mexicanus to examine links between urbanization, health state, and feather pigmentation in males and females. In earlier work, we showed that male house finches are less colorful and more parasitized in the city, and we again detected such patterns in this study for males; however, urban females were less colorful, but not more parasitized, than rural females. Moreover, contrary to rural populations, we found that urban birds (regardless of sex) with larger patches of carotenoid coloration were also more heavily infected with coccidia. These results show that urban environments can disrupt condition-dependent color expression and highlight the need for more studies on how cities affect disease and signaling traits in both male and female animals.
Sex-specific changes in autosomal methylation rate in ageing common terns - Data
<p>In the manuscript "<strong>Sex-specific changes in autosomal methylation rate in aging common terns</strong>" published in Frontiers Ecology And Evolution, we investigate sex-specific age effects in global DNA methylation patterns in aging common terns in a longitudinal study. We collected blood at 1-, 3- and/or 4-year intervals, extracted DNA from the erythrocytes and estimated autosomal DNA methylation by mapping Reduced Representative Bisulfite Sequencing reads to a de novo assembled reference genome. </p> <p>The raw RRBS reads can be found at: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena, PRJEB48910 and the genome at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, PRJNA560234.</p> <p>This document contains the final data frame used for the GLMM. We further share a markdown document summarising the various scripts and programs used for the Reduced Representative Bisulfite Sequencing data analyses and GLMMs (e.g. RefFreeDMA, picard, bismark, and R) under another DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7493357. </p>
Gestational Cd exposure in the CD-1 mouse induces sex-specific hepatic insulin insensitivity, obesity and metabolic syndrome in adult female offspring
<p>There is compelling evidence that developmental exposure to some toxic metals increases risk for obesity and obesity-related morbidity including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in adults. To explore the hypothesis that developmental Cd exposure increased risk of obesity later in life, male and female CD-1 mice were maternally exposed to 500 ppb CdCl<sub>2</sub> in drinking water during a human gestational equivalent period (GD0 - PND10). Hallmark indicators of metabolic disruption, hepatic steatosis, and metabolic syndrome were evaluated prior to birth through adulthood. Blood Cd levels in dams were similar to those observed in human pregnancy cohorts. There were no observed impacts of exposure on dams or pregnancy-related outcomes. Results of glucose and insulin tolerance testing revealed that Cd-exposure impaired glucose homeostasis in young adult offspring. Exposure-related increases in circulating triglycerides and hepatic steatosis were apparent only in females. By PND120, Cd-exposed females had become 30% heavier with 700% more perigonadal fat than unexposed control females. There was no evidence of dyslipidemia, steatosis, increased weight gain, nor increased adiposity in Cd-exposed male offspring. Hepatic transcriptome analysis at PND1, PND21, and PND42 revealed evidence for female-specific increases in oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction with significant early disruption of retinoic acid signaling and altered insulin receptor signaling consistent with hepatic insulin sensitivity in adult females. The observed steatosis and metabolic syndrome-like phenotypes resulting from exposure to 500 ppb CdCl<sub>2</sub> during the pre- and perinatal period of development equivalent to human gestation indicate that Cd acts developmentally as a sex-specific delayed obesogen.</p>
Time spent in distinct life-history stages has sex-specific effects on reproductive fitness in wild Atlantic salmon
<p><span>In species with complex life cycles, life history theory predicts that fitness is affected by conditions encountered in previous life history stages. Here, we use a four-year pedigree to investigate if time spent in two distinct life history stages has sex-specific reproductive fitness consequences in anadromous Atlantic salmon (<i>Salmo salar</i>). We determined the amount of years spent in fresh water as juveniles (freshwater age, FW, measured in years), and years spent in the marine environment as adults (sea age, SW, measured in sea winters) on 264 sexually mature adults collected on a river spawning ground. We then estimated reproductive fitness as the number of offspring (reproductive success) and the number of mates (mating success) using genetic parentage analysis (>5000 offspring). Sea age is significantly and positively correlated with reproductive and mating success of both sexes whereby older and larger individuals gained the highest reproductive fitness benefits (females: 62.2% increase in offspring/SW and 34.8% increase in mate number/SW; males: 201.9% offspring/SW and 60.3% mates/SW). Younger freshwater age was significantly related to older sea age and thus increased reproductive fitness, but only among females (females: -33.9% offspring/FW and -32.4% mates/FW). This result implies that females can obtain higher reproductive fitness by transitioning to the marine environment earlier. In contrast, male mating and reproductive success was unaffected by freshwater age and more males returned at a younger age than females despite the reproductive fitness advantage of later sea age maturation. Our results show that the timing of transitions between juvenile and adult phases has a sex-specific consequence on female reproductive fitness, demonstrating a life-history trade-off between maturation and reproduction in wild Atlantic salmon.</span></p>
Human pan-body age- and sex-specific molecular phenomena inferred from public transcriptome data using machine learning - Data
<p>Expression data used in manuscript <i>Human pan-body age- and sex-specific molecular phenomena inferred from public transcriptome data using machine learning</i></p>
Data from: Sex-specific effects of inbreeding in juvenile brown trout
<p>Inbreeding depression, i.e., the reduction of health and vigour in individuals with high inbreeding coefficients, is expected to increase with environmental, social, or physiological stress. It has therefore been predicted that sexual selection and the associated stress usually lead to higher inbreeding depression in males than in females. However, sex-specific differences in life history may reverse that pattern during certain developmental stages. In some salmonids, for example, female juveniles start developing their gonads earlier than males who instead grow faster. We tested whether the sexes are differently affected by inbreeding during that time. To study the effects of inbreeding coefficients that may be typical for natural populations of brown trout (<em>Salmo trutta</em>), and also to control for potentially confounding maternal or paternal effects, we sampled males and females from the wild, used their gametes in a block-wise full-factorial breeding design to produce 60 full-sib families, released the offspring as yolk-sac larvae into the wild, sampled them 6 months later, identified their genetic sex, and used microsatellites to assign them to their parents. We used whole-genome resequencing to calculate the kinship coefficients for each breeding pair and hence the expected average inbreeding coefficient per family. Juvenile growth could be predicted from these expected inbreeding coefficients and the genetic sex: Females reached lower body sizes with increasing inbreeding coefficient, while no such link could be found in males. This sex-specific inbreeding depression led to the overall pattern that females were on average smaller than males by the end of their first summer.</p>
Sex-specific trunk movement coordination in participants with low-back pain and asymptomatic controls
<p>This is the data set and the code used for our publication. </p>
Summary statistics from "Sex-Specific Causal Relations between Steroid Hormones and Obesity—A Mendelian Randomization Study"
<p>GWAMA summary statistics of four steroid hormone levels and one steroid hormone ratio using fixed-effect model.</p> <p>When using this data, please cite: Pott J, Horn K, Zeidler R, et al.. Sex-Specific Causal Relations between Steroid Hormones and Obesity - A Mendelian Randomization Study. <em>Metabolites</em> <strong>2021</strong>, <em>11</em>, 738. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo11110738</p> <p>All txt files contain the following columns:</p> <ul> <li>markername</li> <li>chr</li> <li>bp_hg19 (base position according to hg19)</li> <li>ea (effect allele)</li> <li>oa (other allele)</li> <li>eaf (effect allele frequency)</li> <li>info (minimal info score across all used studies)</li> <li>nSamples (sample size per SNP)</li> <li>nStudies (number of studies)</li> <li>beta (effect estimate)</li> <li>se (standard error)</li> <li>p (p-value)</li> <li>I2 (SNP heterogeneity across studies)</li> <li>phenotype (phenotyp setting)</li> </ul>
Food deprivation exposes sex-specific trade-offs between stress tolerance and lifespan in the copepod Tigriopus californicus
<p>Long life is standardly assumed to be associated with high stress tolerance. Previous work shows that the copepod <em>Tigriopus californicus</em> breaks this rule, with longer lifespan under benign conditions found in males, the sex with lower stress tolerance. Here we extended this previous work, raising animals from the same families in food-replete conditions until adulthood and then transferring them to food-limited conditions until all animals perished. As in previous work, survivorship under food-replete conditions favored males. However, under food deprivation lifespan strongly favored females in all crosses. Compared to benign conditions, average lifespan under nutritional stress was reduced by 47% in males but only 32% in females. Further, the sex-specific mitonuclear effects previously found under benign conditions were erased under food limited conditions. Results thus demonstrate that sex-specific lifespan, including mitonuclear interactions, are highly dependent on nutritional environment.</p>
Sex-specific body mass aging trajectories in adult Asian elephants
<p><span>In species with marked sexual dimorphism, the classic prediction is that the sex which undergoes stronger intrasexual competition ages earlier or quicker. However, more recently, alternative hypotheses have been put forward, showing that this association can be disrupted. Here, we utilise a unique, longitudinal dataset of a semi-captive population of Asian elephants (<em>Elephas maximus</em>), a species with marked male-biased intrasexual competition, with males being larger and having shorter lifespans, and investigate whether males show earlier and/or faster body mass ageing than females. We found evidence of sex-specific body mass ageing trajectories: adult males gained weight up to the age of 48 years old, followed by a decrease in body mass until natural death. In contrast, adult females gained body mass with age until a body mass decline in the last year of life. Our study shows sex-specific ageing patterns, with an earlier onset of body mass declines in males than females, which is consistent with the predictions of the classical theory of ageing.</span></p>
Data from: Sex-specific life history affected by stocking in juvenile brown trout
<p>Salmonids are a socioeconomically and ecologically important group of fish that are often managed by stocking. Little is known about potential sex-specific effects of stocking, but recent studies found that the sexes differ in their stress tolerances already at late embryonic stage, i.e., before hatchery-born larvae are released into the wild and long before morphological gonad formation. It has also been speculated that sex-specific life histories can affect juvenile growth and mortality, and that a resulting sex-biassed demography can reduce population growth. Here we test whether juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta) show sex-specific life histories and whether such sex effects differ in hatchery- and wild-born fish. We modified a genetic sexing protocol to reduce false assignment rates and used it to study the timing of sex differentiation in a laboratory setting, and in a large-scale field experiment to study growth and mortality of hatchery and wild-born fish in different environments. We found no sex-specific mortality in any of the environments we studied. However, females started sex differentiation earlier than males, and while growth rates were similar in the laboratory, they differed significantly in the field depending on location and origin of fish. Overall, hatchery-born males grew larger than hatchery-born females while wild-born fish showed the reverse pattern. Whether males or females grew larger was location-specific. We conclude that juvenile brown trout show sex-specific growth that is affected by stocking and by other environmental factors that remain to be identified.</p>
Sex-specific tuning of modular muscle activation patterns for locomotion in young and older adults
<p>There is increasing evidence that including sex as a biological variable is of crucial importance to promote rigorous, repeatable and reproducible science. In spite of this, the body of literature that accounts for the sex of participants in human locomotion studies is small and often produces controversial results. Here, we investigated the modular organization of muscle activation patterns for human locomotion using the concept of muscle synergies with a double purpose: i) uncover possible sex-specific characteristics of motor control and ii) assess whether these are maintained in older age. We recorded electromyographic activities from 13 ipsilateral muscles of the lower limb in young and older adults of both sexes walking (young and old) and running (young) on a treadmill. The data set obtained from the 215 participants was elaborated through non-negative matrix factorization to extract the time-independent (i.e., motor modules) and time-dependent (i.e., motor primitives) coefficients of muscle synergies. We found sparse sex-specific modulations of motor control. Motor modules showed a different contribution of hip extensors, knee extensors and foot dorsiflexors in various synergies. Motor primitives were wider (i.e., lasted longer) in males in the propulsion synergy for walking (but only in young and not in older adults) and in the weight acceptance synergy for running. Moreover, the complexity of motor primitives was similar in younger adults of both sexes, but lower in older females as compared to older males. In essence, our results revealed the existence of small but defined sex-specific differences in the way humans control locomotion and that these strategies are not entirely maintained in older age.</p> <p>In this supplementary data set we made available: a) the metadata with anonymized participant information; b) the raw EMG, already concatenated for the overground trials; c) the touchdown and lift-off timings of the recorded limb, d) the code to process the data. In total, 520 trials from 215 participants are included in the supplementary data set.</p> <p>The file “metadata.dat” is available in ASCII format and contains:</p> <ul> <li>Code: the participant’s code</li> <li>Group: the participant's group (G1=young adults, walking; G2=old adults, walking; G3=young adults, running)</li> <li>Sex: the participant’s sex (M or F)</li> <li>Locomotion: the type of locomotion (walking or running)</li> <li>Speed: the speed at which the recordings were conducted in [m/s]</li> <li>Speed_type: the distinction between fixed (decided by the researchers) or preferred (selected by the participant) speed</li> <li>Age: the participant’s age in years</li> <li>Height: the participant’s height in [cm]</li> <li>Mass: the participant’s body mass in [kg].</li> </ul> <p>The "RAW_DATA.RData" R list consists of elements of S3 class "EMG", each of which is a human locomotion trial containing cycle segmentation timings and raw electromyographic (EMG) data from 13 muscles of the right-side leg. Cycle times are structured as data frames containing two columns that correspond to touchdown (first column) and lift-off (second column). Raw EMG data sets are also structured as data frames with one row for each recorded data point and 14 columns. The first column contains the incremental time in seconds. The remaining 13 columns contain the raw EMG data, named with the following muscle abbreviations: ME = gluteus medius, MA = gluteus maximus, FL = tensor fasciæ latæ, RF = rectus femoris, VM = vastus medialis, VL = vastus lateralis, ST = semitendinosus, BF = biceps femoris, TA = tibialis anterior, PL = peroneus longus, GM = gastrocnemius medialis, GL = gastrocnemius lateralis, SO = soleus. Trials are named like “ID0020_M_YOUNG_TW_01,” where the characters “ID0020” indicate the participant number (in this example the 20th), the character “M” indicates the sex, the characters “YOUNG” indicate the age group, the characters “TW” indicate the locomotion type and environment (T=treadmill, W=walking, R=running), and the numbers “01” indicate the trial number.</p> <p><strong>Old versions not compatible with the R package <a href="https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=musclesyneRgies">musclesyneRgies</a></strong></p> <p>The files containing the gait cycle breakdown are available in RData format, in the file named “CYCLE_TIMES.RData”. The files are structured as data frames with one row for each gait cycle and two columns. The first column contains the touchdown incremental times in seconds. The second column contains the duration of each stance phase in seconds. Each trial is saved as an element of a single R list. Trials are named like “CYCLE_TIMES_ID0020_M_YOUNG_TW_01,” where the characters “CYCLE_TIMES” indicate that the trial contains the gait cycle breakdown times, the characters “ID0020” indicate the participant number (in this example the 20th), the character “M” indicates the sex, the characters “YOUNG” indicate the age group, the characters “TW” indicate the locomotion type and environment (T=treadmill, W=walking, R=running), and the numbers “01” indicate the trial number.</p> <p>The files containing the raw, filtered, and the normalized EMG data are available in RData format, in the files named “RAW_EMG.RData” and “FILT_EMG.RData”. The raw EMG files are structured as data frames with one row for each recorded data point and 14 columns. The first column contains the incremental time in seconds. The remaining 13 columns contain the raw EMG data, named with the following muscle abbreviations: ME = gluteus medius, MA = gluteus maximus, FL = tensor fasciæ latæ, RF = rectus femoris, VM = vastus medialis, VL = vastus lateralis, ST = semitendinosus, BF = biceps femoris, TA = tibialis anterior, PL = peroneus longus, GM = gastrocnemius medialis, GL = gastrocnemius lateralis, SO = soleus. Each trial is saved as an element of a single R list. Trials are named like “RAW_EMG_ID0003_F_OLD_TW_01”, where the characters “RAW_EMG” indicate that the trial contains raw emg data, the characters “ID0003” indicate the participant number (in this example the 3rd), the character “F” indicates the sex, the characters “OLD” indicate the age group, the characters “TW” indicate the locomotion type and environment (see above), and the numbers “01” indicate the trial number.</p> <p>All the code used for the pre-processing of EMG data and the extraction of muscle synergies is available in R format. Explanatory comments are profusely present throughout the script “muscle_synergies.R”. The latest version of this code can be found at https://github.com/alesantuz/musclesyneRgies.</p>
Mitochondrial influence on sex-specific phenotypes within natural populations
<p>Data and scripts for the manuscript entitled "Mitochondrial influence on sex-specific phenotypes within natural populations" submitted to <em>Evolution</em><em>. </em></p>
Position in the laying order has sex-specific consequences for reproductive success in adult black-headed gulls
<p><span>Mothers who produce multiple offspring within one reproductive attempt often allocate resources differentially; some maternally-derived substances are preferentially allocated to last-produced offspring and others to first-produced offspring. The combined effect of these different allocation regimes on the overall fitness of offspring produced early or late in the sequence is not well understood, partly because production order is often coupled with birth order, making it difficult to separate effects of pre-natal maternal allocation from those of post-natal social environments. In addition, very little is known about the influence of laying order on fitness in later-life. In this study, we used a semi-natural captive colony of black-headed gulls to test whether an offspring's position in the laying order affected its early life survival and later life reproductive success, independent of its hatching order. Later-laid eggs were less likely to hatch, but among those that did, survival to adulthood was greater than that of first-laid eggs. In adulthood, the laying order of females did not affect their likelihood of breeding in the colony, but male offspring hatched from last-laid eggs were significantly less likely to gain a breeding position than earlier-laid males. In contrast, later-laid female parents hatched lower proportions of their clutches than first-laid females, but hatching success was unrelated to the laying order of male parents. Our results indicate that gull mothers induce complex and sex-specific effects on both the early survival of their offspring and on long-term reproductive success through laying order effects among eggs of the same breeding attempt.<strong> </strong></span></p>
Pesticide exposure triggers sex-specific inter- and trans-generational effects conditioned by past sexual selection
<p>Environmental variation often induces plastic responses in organisms that can trigger changes in subsequent generations through non-genetic inheritance mechanisms. Such transgenerational plasticity thus consists of environmentally-induced non-random phenotypic modifications that are transmitted through generations. Transgenerational effects may vary according to the sex of the organism experiencing the environmental perturbation, the sex of their descendants, or both, but whether they are affected by past sexual selection is unknown. Here we use experimental evolution on an insect model system to conduct a first test of the involvement of sexual selection history in shaping transgenerational plasticity in the face of rapid environmental change (exposure to pesticides). We manipulated evolutionary history in terms of the intensity of sexual selection for over 80 generations before exposing individuals to the toxicant. We found that sexual selection history constrained adaptation under rapid environmental change. We also detected intergenerational and transgenerational effects of pesticide exposure in the form of increased fitness and longevity. These cross-generational influences of toxicants were sex-dependent (they affected only male descendants), and intergenerational, but not transgenerational, plasticity was modulated by sexual selection history. Our results highlight the complexity of intragenerational, intergenerational, and transgenerational influences of past selection and environmental stress on phenotypic expression.</p>
Paternal condition affects offspring reproduction and life history in a sex-specific manner in Drosophila melanogaster
<p>Nongenetic parental effects can contribute to the adaptation of species to changing environments by circumventing some of the limitations of genetic inheritance. A clearer understanding of the influence of nongenetic inheritance and its potentially sex-specific responses in daughters and sons is needed to better predict the evolutionary trajectories of species. However, whereas nongenetic maternal effects have long been recognized and widely studied, comparatively little is known about corresponding paternal effects. Here, by following 30 isogenic lines of <em>Drosophila</em> <em>melanogaster</em> across two generations, each reared under two dietary regimes in each generation, we tested how protein restriction during larval development of the fathers affects the fitness and health of their daughters and sons. We then quantified genetic and non-genetic paternal, and direct environmental, effects across multiple axes of offspring fitness. Daughters and sons responded differently to their father's developmental history. While isolines differed in mean trait values, their specific responses to protein restriction generally varied little. The sex- and trait-specific responses to paternal effects emphasize the complexity of inter-generational parental effects, which raise important questions about their mode of transmission and adaptive value, including the potential for conflict between the sexes.</p>
Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) induces sex-specific dysbiosis in the mouse gut bacterial microbiome, altering abundance and function
<p><strong>Background:</strong> Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) represents the commonest cause of spinal cord impairment induced by non-traumatic events in the elderly population. It describes a spectrum of disorders that cause progressive spinal cord compression, neurological impairment, loss of bladder and bowel functions, as well as gastrointestinal dysfunction. The gut microbiota has been increasingly recognized as an environmental factor that can modulate both the central nervous system and immune response through the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Changes in gut microbiota composition or in the microbiota producing factors have been linked in the progression and development of several different pathologies such as traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that trigger DCM manifestation, and the potential role of the gut microbiota.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Herein DCM was induced in female and male C57BL/6 mice by implanting an aromatic polyether material underneath the C5-6 laminae. The extent of DCM-induced changes in microbiota composition, also known as dysbiosis, was assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing from fecal samples at 3 different time points (6, 9 and 12 weeks after DCM induction). Several bacterial members were identified based on BLAST against the largest collection of metagenome-derived genomes from the mouse gut up to date. In both, female and males DCM caused gut dysbiosis compared with the sham group. However, dysbiosis was more pronounced in males than females, where several bacterial members of the families <em>Lachnospiraceae</em> and <em>Muribaculaceae</em> were significantly altered in the DCM group. These changes were also associated with altered immune cell composition in gut-associated lymphoid tissue, blood, and microbe-derived metabolic changes in propionate, butyrate, and lactate-producing bacterial members.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results demonstrate for the first time that DCM causes dynamic changes over time in the gut microbiota. Furthermore, we identify specie-specific abundance changes during DCM progression. DCM strongly reduces the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria, and lactate-producing bacteria in much less extent. Sequence-based pangenomics cores were not resolved between the latter bacteria, but the gap-filling reactions and metabolic modelling successfully identified pyruvate-to-butanoate and pyruvate-to-propionate genes such as Buk and ACH1, respectively. These results aid to better understand markers and the molecular mechanisms that over time trigger DCM manifestation in females and males.</p>
Data and code to reproduce analysis in Sacchi et al. 2023: Sex-specific fitness consequences of mate change in Scopoli's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea)
<p>This data package contains data and code needed to reproduce the analysis reported in <strong>Sex-specific fitness consequences of mate change in Scopoli’s shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea), doi </strong>10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.05.017</p> <p>Included are:</p> <p>1) Readme file - description of all other files and variables described in datasets</p> <p>2) Appendix.Rmd = R code file containing all the analysis reported in the paper</p> <p>3) breed.txt = this data table contains data for the analysis of fitness/breeding success</p> <p>4) skip.txt = this data table contains data for the analysis of skipping behaviour</p> <p>5) females.txt = this file contains data in headed format to build CR models for the female population. Covariate indicates if an individual's life history started with event 1 (partner known, first partner) or with event 3 (partner unknown).</p> <p>6) males.txt = this file contains data in headed format to build CR models for the male population. Covariate indicates if an individual's life history started with event 1 (partner known, first partner) or with event 3 (partner unknown).</p> <p>7) gepat.pat = this file contains the matrix design necessary to run CR models with e-surge (version 2.2.3)</p> <p> </p>
Sex-specific effects of psychoactive pollution on behavioural individuality and plasticity in fish
<p>The global rise of pharmaceutical contaminants in the aquatic environment poses a serious threat to ecological and evolutionary processes. Studies have traditionally focused on the collateral (average) effects of psychoactive pollutants on ecologically-relevant behaviours of wildlife, often neglecting effects among and within individuals, and whether they differ between males and females. We tested whether psychoactive pollutants have sex-specific effects on behavioural individuality and plasticity in guppies (<em>Poecilia</em> <em>reticulata</em>), a freshwater species that inhabits contaminated waterways in the wild. Fish were exposed to fluoxetine (Prozac) for two years across multiple generations before their activity and stress-related behaviour were repeatedly assayed. Using a Bayesian statistical approach that partitions the effects among and within individuals, we found that males—but not females—in fluoxetine-exposed populations differed less from each other in their behaviour (lower behavioural individuality) than unexposed males. In sharp contrast, effects on behavioural plasticity were observed in females—but not in males—whereby exposure to even low levels of fluoxetine resulted in a substantial decrease (activity) and increase (freezing behaviour) in the behavioural plasticity of females. Our evidence reveals that psychoactive pollution has sex-specific effects on the individual behaviour of fish, suggesting that males and females might not be equally vulnerable to global pollutants.</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.