Figure 3. dsxRNAi affects male- and female-biased gene expression in a sex-specific and tissue-specific manner.

Dark blue and pink represent genes with male- and female-biased expression, respectively, as determined by comparisons between control males and control females. Background colours indicate whether those genes were assessed in male (light blue) or female (light pink) tissues. Letters indicate significant differences between levels of gene expression (Wilcoxon test and Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons). (a) In all male tissues assessed (thoracic and head horns pictured here, brain and genitalia in Supplementary Fig. 2), dsxRNAi decreased levels of male-biased gene expression (dark blue) and increased levels of female-biased gene expression (dark pink). In most female tissues (thoracic horn pictured here, brain and genitalia in Supplementary Fig. 2), dsxRNAi neither decreased levels of female-biased gene expression nor increased levels of male-biased gene expression. However, uniquely in female head horns (pictured here), dsxRNAi resulted in increased levels of male-biased gene expression. Lines within boxes are median values of gene expression and whiskers extend to the most extreme data points that are not outliers. Outliers—data points greater than (the upper quartile+1.5 × the interquartile range) or less than (the lower quartile −1.5 × interquartile range)—are represented as circles. (b) A summary of the differential actions of male and female Dsx isoforms among tissues; blue arrows indicate the effect on genes with male-biased expression, pink arrows indicate the effect on genes with female-biased expression and grey arrows indicate the absence of an effect. These results show that the male Dsx isoform modulates sex-biased gene expression across several male tissues, but that female Dsx isoforms typically only modulate male-biased gene expression in a single female tissue: head horns.