Maternal stress has divergent effects on gene expression patterns in the brains of male and female threespine stickleback

Maternal stress can have long-term effects on neurodevelopment that can influence offspring performance and population evolutionary trajectories. To examine the mechanistic basis for these neurodevelopmental effects of maternal stress, we used RNA-seq to assess differential gene expression across the brain transcriptome of adult male and female threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from stressed and unstressed mothers. We identified sexually divergent effects of maternal stress on the brain transcriptome. In males, genes that were up-regulated by maternal stress were enriched for processes involved in synaptic function and organization and steroid hormone mediated signaling pathways, whereas in females genes that were up-regulated by maternal stress were enriched for processes involved in protein translation and metabolic functions. The expression of several genes involved in the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal response to stress and epigenetic processes such as the regulati...