Sex-specific mRNA and miRNA expression data from Drosophila larvae, pupae and adults [miRNA]

Sex differences in gene expression throughout development are poorly understood, especially sex-specific expression of micro RNAs. However these patterns of gene expression could have important implications in our understanding of the underlying mechanics of sex differentiation and sexual conflict. We extract mRNA and miRNA from male and female Drosophila melanogaster from three developmental timepoints, third larval instar, pupae and adults, and examine gene expression using microarrays. We found a large number of sex-biased mRNA transcripts at each stage of development, whereas sex-biased miRNA expression was low in larvae and pupae and more prevalent in adults. We isolated 2 biological replicates of each sex at each of the three developmental timepoints and extracted mRNA and miRNA from each sample, creating 12 samples of each type of RNA which were ran on GeneChip Drosophila Genome 2.0 Affymetrix microarrays to examine mRNA expression, and GeneChip miRNA 3.0 Affymetrix microarrays to examine miRNA expression.