Data from: Hormonally mediated increases in sex-biased gene expression accompany the breakdown of between-sex genetic correlations in a sexually dimorphic lizard

The evolution of sexual dimorphism is predicted to occur through
reductions in between-sex genetic correlations (rmf) for shared traits,
but the physiological and genetic mechanisms that facilitate these
reductions remain largely speculative. Here, we use a paternal
half-sibling breeding design in captive brown anole lizards (Anolis
sagrei) to show that the development of sexual size dimorphism is mirrored
by the ontogenetic breakdown of rmf for body size and growth rate. Using
transcriptome data from the liver (which integrates growth and
metabolism), we show that sex-biased gene expression also increases
dramatically between ontogenetic stages bracketing this breakdown of rmf.
Ontogenetic increases in sex-biased expression are particularly evident
for genes involved in growth, metabolism, and cell proliferation,
suggesting that they contribute to both the development of sexual
dimorphism and the breakdown of rmf. Mechanistically, we show that
treatment of females with testosterone stimulates the expression of
male-biased genes while inhibiting the expression of female-biased genes,
thereby inducing male-like phenotypes at both organismal and
transcriptomic levels. Collectively, our results suggest that sex-specific
modifiers such as testosterone can orchestrate sex-biased gene expression
to facilitate the phenotypic development of sexual dimorphism while
simultaneously reducing genetic correlations that would otherwise
constrain the independent evolution of the sexes.