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Gata-Garcia A, Porat A, Brimberg L, Volpe BT, Huerta PT, Diamond B. Contributions of Sex Chromosomes and Gonadal Hormones to the Male Bias in a Maternal Antibody-Induced Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Front Neurol 2021; 12:721108. [PMID: 34721260 PMCID: PMC8548617 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.721108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental conditions that is four times more commonly diagnosed in males than females. While susceptibility genes located in the sex chromosomes have been identified in ASD, it is unclear whether they are sufficient to explain the male bias or whether gonadal hormones also play a key role. We evaluated the sex chromosomal and hormonal influences on the male bias in a murine model of ASD, in which mice are exposed in utero to a maternal antibody reactive to contactin-associated protein-like 2 (Caspr2), which was originally cloned from a mother of a child with ASD (termed C6 mice henceforth). In this model, only male mice are affected. We used the four-core-genotypes (FCG) model in which the Sry gene is deleted from the Y chromosome (Y−) and inserted into autosome 3 (TgSry). Thus, by combining the C6 and FCG models, we were able to differentiate the contributions of sex chromosomes and gonadal hormones to the development of fetal brain and adult behavioral phenotypes. We show that the presence of the Y chromosome, or lack of two X chromosomes, irrespective of gonadal sex, increased the susceptibility to C6-induced phenotypes including the abnormal growth of the developing fetal cerebral cortex, as well as a behavioral pattern of decreased open-field exploration in adult mice. Our results indicate that sex chromosomes are the main determinant of the male bias in the maternal C6-induced model of ASD. The less dominant hormonal effect may be due to modulation by sex chromosome genes of factors involved in gonadal hormone pathways in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana Gata-Garcia
- Center for Autoimmune, Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States.,Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, United States
| | - Amit Porat
- Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States
| | - Lior Brimberg
- Center for Autoimmune, Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States
| | - Bruce T Volpe
- Center for Autoimmune, Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States
| | - Patricio T Huerta
- Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, United States.,Laboratory of Immune and Neural Networks, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States
| | - Betty Diamond
- Center for Autoimmune, Musculoskeletal and Hematopoietic Diseases, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, United States.,Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, United States
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Abstract
Integrating sex as an important biological variable is imperative to enhance the accuracy and reproducibility of cell-based studies, which provide basic information for subsequent preclinical and clinical study designs. Recently, international funding agencies and renowned journals have been attempting to integrate sex as a variable in every research step. To understand what progress has been made in reporting of cell sex in the articles published in AJP-Cell Physiology since the analysis in 2013, we examined the sex notation of the cells in relevant articles published in the same journal in 2018. Of the 107 articles reporting cell experiments, 53 reported the sex of the cells, 18 used both male and female cells, 23 used male cells only, and 12 used female cells only. Sex omission was more frequent when cell lines were used than when primary cells were used. In the articles describing experiments performed using rodent primary cells, more than half of the studies used only male cells. Our results showed an overall improvement in sex reporting for cells in AJP-Cell Physiology articles from 2013 (25%) to 2018 (50%). However, sex omission and male bias were often found still. Furthermore, the obtained results were rarely analyzed by sex even when both male and female cells were used in the experiments. To boost sex-considerate research implementation in basic biomedical studies, cooperative efforts of the research community, funders, and publishers are urged.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Yeob Kim
- Department of Medical Life Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.,Department of Biomedicine & Health Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
| | - Kyoungmi Min
- Department of Medical Life Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.,Department of Biomedicine & Health Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
| | - Hee Young Paik
- Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Suk Kyeong Lee
- Department of Medical Life Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.,Department of Biomedicine & Health Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
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Petersen KB, Burd M. The enigma of sex allocation in Selaginella. Ann Bot 2018; 121:377-383. [PMID: 29300810 PMCID: PMC5808784 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcx163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2017] [Accepted: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS The division of resource investment between male and female functions is poorly known for land plants other than angiosperms. The ancient lycophyte genus Selaginella is similar in some ways to angiosperms (in heterospory and in having sex allocation occur in the sporophyte generation, for example) but lacks the post-fertilization maternal investments that angiosperms make via fruit and seed tissues. One would therefore expect Selaginella to have sex allocation values less female-biased than in flowering plants and closer to the theoretical prediction of equal investment in male and female functions. Nothing is currently known of sex allocation in the genus, so even the simplest predictions have not been tested. METHODS Volumetric measurements of microsporangial and megasporangial investment were made in 14 species of Selaginella from four continents. In five of these species the length of the main above-ground axis of each plant was measured to determine whether sex allocation is related to plant size. KEY RESULTS Of the 14 species, 13 showed male-biased allocations, often extreme, in population means and among the great majority of individual plants. There was some indication from the five species with axis length measurements that relative male allocation might be related to the release height of spores, but this evidence is preliminary. CONCLUSIONS Sex allocation in Selaginella provides a phylogenetic touchstone showing how the innovations of fruit and seed investment in the angiosperm life cycle lead to typically female-biased allocations in that lineage. Moreover, the male bias we found in Selaginella requires an evolutionary explanation. The bias was often greater than what would occur from the mere absence of seed and fruit investments, and thus poses a challenge to sex allocation theory. It is possible that differences between microspores and megaspores in their dispersal ecology create selective effects that favour male-biased sexual allocation. This hypothesis remains tentative.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kurt B Petersen
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Martin Burd
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Abstract
Pupal sexes of the most common mosquito species were determined in the course of biweekly censuses (with replacement) of the contents of 3-7 tree holes from 1980-2003 in Vero Beach, FL. A significant (P < 0.001) male bias was detected over this period for the most abundant species, Aedes triseriatus. No significant deviation from a 1:1 sex ratio was detected among pupae of Toxorhynchites rutilus or Ae. albopictus, the latter species occurring in this community only since 1991. Although pupae of Ae. triseriatus were recorded during every month of the year, significant male biases were detected only in February-May, August, and December. These results are interpreted in the context of multivoltinism and the previously documented differential sensitivity of male and female eggs of this species to hatching stimuli. Sex-specific responses to hatching stimuli are judged to be present but less pronounced in eggs of Ae. albopictus. Male biases in container Aedes are likely associated with sexual selection, which may also explain seasonal changes in sex ratios, whereby early males compete to mate with high-fecundity females. The overproduction of Ae. triseriatus males may be counterbalanced by increased fitness of females, which are known to predominate in delayed hatches.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Philip Lounibos
- Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, University of Florida, 200 9th Street SE, Vero Beach, FL 32962, USA
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