Sexual dimorphism in common disease is pervasive, including a dramatic male preponderance in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Potential genetic explanations include a liability threshold model requiring increased polymorphism risk in females, sex-limited X-chromosome contribution, gene-environment interaction driven by differences in hormonal milieu, risk influenced by genes sex-differentially...

Sexual selection should produce sexual size dimorphism in species where larger members of one sex obtain disproportionately more matings. Recent theory suggests that the degree of sexual size dimorphism depends on physical and temporal constraints involving the operational sex ratio, the potential reproductive rate and the trade-off between current reproductive effort and residual reproductive ...

Population sex ratios in monogamous birds are often male biased. One factor that can affect population sex ratios is sex-biased predation. However, most estimates of sex-biased predation in birds have focused on species with obvious sexual colour dimorphism or body size dimorphism. Data on sexually monomorphic birds are generally lacking. In the present study, we adopt a PCR-based sexing proced...

The expression of sexually dimorphic phenotypes from a shared genome between males and females is a longstanding puzzle in evolutionary biology. Increasingly, research has made use of transcriptomic technology to examine the molecular basis of sexual dimorphism through gene expression studies, but even this level of detail misses the metabolic processes that ultimately link gene expression with...

Sex determination systems are highly variable in vertebrates, although neither the causes nor implications of this diversity fully understood. Theory suggests that sex is expected to relate sexual size dimorphism, because environmental promotes sex-specific developmental bias embryonic growth rates. Furthermore, selection for larger one or other has been proposed drive evolution different genet...

BACKGROUND Adult-onset isolated focal dystonia (AOIFD) presenting in early adult life is more frequent in men, whereas in middle age it is female predominant. Temporal discrimination, an endophenotype of adult-onset idiopathic isolated focal dystonia, shows evidence of sexual dimorphism in healthy participants. OBJECTIVES We assessed the distinctive features of age-related sexual dimorphism o...

The rise of sexual dimorphism is thought to coincide with the evolution of sex chromosomes. Yet because sex chromosomes in many species are ancient, we lack empirical evidence of the earliest stages of this transition. We use QTL analysis to examine the genetic architecture of sexual dimorphism in subdioecious octoploid Fragaria virginiana. We demonstrate that the region housing the male-functi...

S ince the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex in 1871 (1), there has been a vigorous debate about the meaning of sexual dimorphism for a range of physical attributes in numerous animal species, including primates and humans, extinct and extant. Key points of discussion are how to interpret size dimorphism in past humans and human-like ancestors a...

Traditionally, studies of sexually size-dimorphic birds and mammals report that the larger sex is more sensitive to adverse environmental conditions during ontogeny. However, recent studies in avian species that exhibit moderate size-dimorphism indicate that the smaller sex may be more sensitive to poor rearing conditions. To better understand sex-specific sensitivity in a passerine exhibiting ...