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Does inbreeding affect gene expression in birds?

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Author

Summary, in English

Inbreeding increases homozygosity, exposes genome-wide recessive deleterious alleles and often reduces fitness. The physiological and reproductive consequences of inbreeding may be manifested already during gene regulation, but the degree to which inbreeding influences gene expression is unknown in most organisms, including in birds. To evaluate the pattern of inbreeding-affected gene expression over the genome and in relation to sex, we performed a transcriptome-wide gene expression (10 695 genes) study of brain tissue of 10-day-old inbred and outbred, male and female zebra finches. We found significantly lower gene expression in females compared with males at Z-linked genes, confirming that dosage compensation is incomplete in female birds. However, inbreeding did not affect gene expression at autosomal or sex-linked genes, neither in males nor in females. Analyses of single genes again found a clear sex-biased expression at Z-linked genes, whereas only a single gene was significantly affected by inbreeding. The weak effect of inbreeding on gene expression in zebra finches contrasts to the situation, for example, in Drosophila where inbreeding has been found to influence gene expression more generally and at stress-related genes in particular.

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Publication/Series

Biology letters

Volume

10

Issue

9

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1744-9561