Fig. 1.

The sexome. Green circles are gene products connected in a network, with green arrows indicating interactions between network nodes. The female (F) and male (M) boxes show the origins of sex-biasing actions in the network. Female-biasing factors include two X chromosomes, ovarian secretions, etc. Male-biasing factors include a single X chromosome, the Y chromosome, testicular secretions, etc. The sex-biasing influence of these factors on the network is illustrated by the pink or blue shading of gene product nodes. Gene products influenced both by female-biasing and male-biasing factors show pink and blue shading. The sex-biasing factors can increase or decrease activity at specific sites in the network, and their effects can propagate through the network to sex-bias various gene modules (data not shown). The sexome is defined as the total of all sex-biasing actions within the network.