Final Report Summary - SEXGENTRANSEVOLUTION (Sex-biased genome and transcriptome evolution in mammals)
Gene expression changes may underlie much of phenotypic evolution. The development of high-throughput RNA sequencing protocols has opened the door to unprecedented large-scale and cross-species transcriptome comparisons by allowing accurate and sensitive assessments of transcript sequences and expression levels. In the framework of our ERC Starting Grant-funded projects, in which we produced unprecedented cross-mammalian transcriptome datasets for various organs using state-of-the-art RNA sequencing protocols, we have unveiled commonalities and differences in the dynamics of gene expression evolution for various types of coding and non-coding genes across mammalian lineages, organs, chromosomes and sexes. Our work has thus also provided intriguing new clues to the regulatory basis and phenotypic implications of evolutionary gene expression changes.