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

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.

发育进程中的基因表达性别差异机制尚未得到充分阐明，其中尤以微小RNA（microRNA）的性别特异性表达为甚。然而这类基因表达模式，对于我们理解性别分化与性冲突的潜在分子机制具有重要意义。本研究从三龄幼虫期、蛹期及成虫期三个发育时间点的雌雄黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）中，分别提取信使RNA（mRNA）与微小RNA（miRNA），并通过基因芯片技术检测基因表达水平。研究发现，各发育阶段均存在大量具有性别偏向性的mRNA转录本；而性别偏向性的miRNA表达在幼虫与蛹期水平较低，在成虫期则更为普遍。本研究针对每个发育时间点的两种性别均设置了2次生物学重复，从每份样本中提取mRNA与miRNA，最终获得12份对应每种RNA类型的样本；随后使用Affymetrix GeneChip Drosophila Genome 2.0基因芯片检测mRNA表达，采用Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA 3.0基因芯片检测miRNA表达。