Toxicogenomic analysis suggests chemical-induced sexual dimorphism in the expression of metabolic genes in zebrafish liver

Differential gene expression in two sexes is widespread throughout the animal kingdom, giving rise to sex-dimorphic gene activities and sex-dependent adaptability to environmental cues, diets, growth and development as well as susceptibility to diseases. Here, we present a study using a toxicogenomi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-12, Vol.7 (12), p.e51971
Main Authors: Zhang, Xun, Ung, Choong Yong, Lam, Siew Hong, Ma, Jing, Chen, Yu Zong, Zhang, Louxin, Gong, Zhiyuan, Li, Baowen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptability
Analysis
Animals
Arsenic
Biology
Cluster Analysis
Cues
Danio rerio
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Disease susceptibility
DNA
DNA-directed RNA polymerase
Engineering
Fatty acids
Female
Females
Gender differences
Gene expression
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation - drug effects
Gene Regulatory Networks
Genes
Genetic aspects
Genomes
Genomics
Hierarchies
Homeostasis
Hormones
Lipid metabolism
Liver
Liver - metabolism
Male
Males
Metabolic Networks and Pathways - genetics
Metabolism
Obesity
Physiological aspects
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
Science
Sex
Sex Characteristics
Sex factor
Sexes
Sexual dimorphism
Toxicology
Type 2 diabetes
Xenobiotics
Zebrafish
Zebrafish - genetics
Zebrafish - metabolism
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Summary:Differential gene expression in two sexes is widespread throughout the animal kingdom, giving rise to sex-dimorphic gene activities and sex-dependent adaptability to environmental cues, diets, growth and development as well as susceptibility to diseases. Here, we present a study using a toxicogenomic approach to investigate metabolic genes that show sex-dimorphic expression in the zebrafish liver triggered by several chemicals. Our analysis revealed that, besides the known genes for xenobiotic metabolism, many functionally diverse metabolic genes, such as ELOVL fatty acid elongase, DNA-directed RNA polymerase, and hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, were also sex-dimorphic in their response to chemical treatments. Moreover, sex-dimorphic responses were also observed at the pathway level. Pathways belonging to xenobiotic metabolism, lipid metabolism, and nucleotide metabolism were enriched with sex-dimorphically expressed genes. We also observed temporal differences of the sex-dimorphic responses, suggesting that both genes and pathways are differently correlated during different periods of chemical perturbation. The ubiquity of sex-dimorphic activities at different biological hierarchies indicate the importance and the need of considering the sex factor in many areas of biological researches, especially in toxicology and pathology.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0051971