[{"OA_place":"publisher","doi":"10.1093/genetics/iyaf175","article_type":"original","OA_type":"hybrid","ddc":["570"],"citation":{"chicago":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma, and Laura Hayward. “The Relationship between Sexual Dimorphism and Intersex Correlation: Do Models Support Intuition?” <i>Genetics</i>. Oxford University Press, 2025. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf175\">https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf175</a>.","ista":"Puixeu Sala G, Hayward L. 2025. The relationship between sexual dimorphism and intersex correlation: Do models support intuition? Genetics. 231(3), iyaf175.","ama":"Puixeu Sala G, Hayward L. The relationship between sexual dimorphism and intersex correlation: Do models support intuition? <i>Genetics</i>. 2025;231(3). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf175\">10.1093/genetics/iyaf175</a>","apa":"Puixeu Sala, G., &#38; Hayward, L. (2025). The relationship between sexual dimorphism and intersex correlation: Do models support intuition? <i>Genetics</i>. Oxford University Press. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf175\">https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf175</a>","ieee":"G. Puixeu Sala and L. Hayward, “The relationship between sexual dimorphism and intersex correlation: Do models support intuition?,” <i>Genetics</i>, vol. 231, no. 3. Oxford University Press, 2025.","short":"G. Puixeu Sala, L. Hayward, Genetics 231 (2025).","mla":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma, and Laura Hayward. “The Relationship between Sexual Dimorphism and Intersex Correlation: Do Models Support Intuition?” <i>Genetics</i>, vol. 231, no. 3, iyaf175, Oxford University Press, 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf175\">10.1093/genetics/iyaf175</a>."},"PlanS_conform":"1","article_processing_charge":"Yes (via OA deal)","title":"The relationship between sexual dimorphism and intersex correlation: Do models support intuition?","month":"11","_id":"20330","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","year":"2025","oa_version":"Published Version","date_updated":"2026-01-05T13:04:07Z","date_published":"2025-11-01T00:00:00Z","has_accepted_license":"1","project":[{"_id":"9B9DFC9E-BA93-11EA-9121-9846C619BF3A","grant_number":"25817","name":"Sexual conflict: resolution, constraints and biomedical implications"},{"_id":"2564DBCA-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","grant_number":"665385","name":"International IST Doctoral Program","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"name":"Understanding the evolution of continuous genomes","_id":"bd6958e0-d553-11ed-ba76-86eba6a76c00","grant_number":"101055327"}],"day":"01","publisher":"Oxford University Press","type":"journal_article","issue":"3","tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)"},"status":"public","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"corr_author":"1","external_id":{"isi":["001598595000001"]},"department":[{"_id":"BeVi"},{"_id":"NiBa"}],"date_created":"2025-09-10T05:48:04Z","publication_status":"published","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","abstract":[{"text":"The evolution of sexual dimorphism (the difference in average trait values between females and males, SD), is often thought to be constrained by shared genetic architecture between the sexes. Indeed, it is commonly expected that SD should negatively correlate with the intersex correlation (the genetic correlation between effects of segregating variants in females and males, r fm), either because (1) traits with ancestrally low r fm are less constrained in their ability to respond to sex-specific selection and thus evolve to be more dimorphic, or because (2) sex-specific selection, driving sexual dimorphism evolution, also acts to reduce r fm. Despite the intuitive appeal and prominence of these ideas, their generality and the conditions in which they hold remain unclear. Here, we develop models incorporating sex-specific stabilizing selection, mutation and genetic drift to examine the relationship between r fm and SD. We show that the two commonly-discussed mechanisms with the potential to generate a negative correlation between SD and r fm could just as easily generate a positive association, since the standard line of reasoning hinges on a hidden assumption that sex-specific adaptation more frequently favors increased dimorphism than reduced dimorphism. Our results provide, to our knowledge, the first mechanistic framework for understanding the conditions under which a correlation between r fm and SD may arise and offer a compelling explanation for inconsistent empirical evidence. We also make the intriguing observation that—even when selection between the two sexes is identical—drift generates nonzero SD. We quantify this effect and discuss its significance.","lang":"eng"}],"article_number":"iyaf175","quality_controlled":"1","volume":231,"ec_funded":1,"intvolume":"       231","isi":1,"publication":"Genetics","scopus_import":"1","file_date_updated":"2026-01-05T13:03:18Z","author":[{"last_name":"Puixeu Sala","full_name":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma","id":"33AB266C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Gemma","orcid":"0000-0001-8330-1754"},{"id":"fc885ee5-24bf-11eb-ad7b-bcc5104c0c1b","first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Hayward","full_name":"Hayward, Laura"}],"oa":1,"publication_identifier":{"issn":["1943-2631"]},"acknowledgement":"We thank Tim Connallon for useful discussions and correspondence, Himani Sachdeva and Nick Barton for comments on the manuscript and the Scientific Computing unit at ISTA for technical support. GP is the recipient of a DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (DOC 25817) and received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant (agreement no. 665385). LH received funding from the European Research Council, under the HaplotypeStructure Grant (grant no. 101055327) to Nick Barton.","file":[{"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"bbb73bbf8617812d4d8db4af92be9538","date_updated":"2026-01-05T13:03:18Z","file_id":"20946","date_created":"2026-01-05T13:03:18Z","file_name":"2025_Genetics_Puixeu.pdf","creator":"dernst","file_size":1550562}]},{"_id":"14058","month":"08","title":"The molecular basis of sexual dimorphism: Experimental and theoretical characterization of phenotypic, transcriptomic and genetic patterns of sex-specific adaptation","article_processing_charge":"No","related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"research_data","status":"public","id":"9803"},{"id":"12933","status":"public","relation":"research_data"},{"status":"public","relation":"part_of_dissertation","id":"6831"},{"id":"14077","status":"public","relation":"part_of_dissertation"}]},"citation":{"short":"G. Puixeu Sala, The Molecular Basis of Sexual Dimorphism: Experimental and Theoretical Characterization of Phenotypic, Transcriptomic and Genetic Patterns of Sex-Specific Adaptation, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2023.","mla":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma. <i>The Molecular Basis of Sexual Dimorphism: Experimental and Theoretical Characterization of Phenotypic, Transcriptomic and Genetic Patterns of Sex-Specific Adaptation</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2023, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:14058\">10.15479/at:ista:14058</a>.","ieee":"G. Puixeu Sala, “The molecular basis of sexual dimorphism: Experimental and theoretical characterization of phenotypic, transcriptomic and genetic patterns of sex-specific adaptation,” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2023.","ama":"Puixeu Sala G. The molecular basis of sexual dimorphism: Experimental and theoretical characterization of phenotypic, transcriptomic and genetic patterns of sex-specific adaptation. 2023. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:14058\">10.15479/at:ista:14058</a>","apa":"Puixeu Sala, G. (2023). <i>The molecular basis of sexual dimorphism: Experimental and theoretical characterization of phenotypic, transcriptomic and genetic patterns of sex-specific adaptation</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:14058\">https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:14058</a>","chicago":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma. “The Molecular Basis of Sexual Dimorphism: Experimental and Theoretical Characterization of Phenotypic, Transcriptomic and Genetic Patterns of Sex-Specific Adaptation.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2023. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:14058\">https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:14058</a>.","ista":"Puixeu Sala G. 2023. The molecular basis of sexual dimorphism: Experimental and theoretical characterization of phenotypic, transcriptomic and genetic patterns of sex-specific adaptation. Institute of Science and Technology Austria."},"ddc":["576"],"alternative_title":["ISTA Thesis"],"OA_place":"publisher","doi":"10.15479/at:ista:14058","status":"public","tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)"},"type":"dissertation","day":"15","publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","project":[{"grant_number":"665385","_id":"2564DBCA-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"International IST Doctoral Program","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"name":"Sexual conflict: resolution, constraints and biomedical implications","_id":"9B9DFC9E-BA93-11EA-9121-9846C619BF3A","grant_number":"25817"}],"date_published":"2023-08-15T00:00:00Z","has_accepted_license":"1","date_updated":"2026-04-07T13:25:34Z","year":"2023","oa_version":"Published Version","user_id":"ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd","page":"230","supervisor":[{"orcid":"0000-0002-4579-8306","full_name":"Vicoso, Beatriz","last_name":"Vicoso","first_name":"Beatriz","id":"49E1C5C6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-8548-5240","first_name":"Nicholas H","id":"4880FE40-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","full_name":"Barton, Nicholas H","last_name":"Barton"}],"abstract":[{"text":"Females and males across species are subject to divergent selective pressures arising\r\nfrom di↵erent reproductive interests and ecological niches. This often translates into a\r\nintricate array of sex-specific natural and sexual selection on traits that have a shared\r\ngenetic basis between both sexes, causing a genetic sexual conflict. The resolution of\r\nthis conflict mostly relies on the evolution of sex-specific expression of the shared genes,\r\nleading to phenotypic sexual dimorphism. Such sex-specific gene expression is thought\r\nto evolve via modifications of the genetic networks ultimately linked to sex-determining\r\ntranscription factors. Although much empirical and theoretical evidence supports this\r\nstandard picture of the molecular basis of sexual conflict resolution, there still are a\r\nfew open questions regarding the complex array of selective forces driving phenotypic\r\ndi↵erentiation between the sexes, as well as the molecular mechanisms underlying sexspecific adaptation. I address some of these open questions in my PhD thesis.\r\nFirst, how do patterns of phenotypic sexual dimorphism vary within populations,\r\nas a response to the temporal and spatial changes in sex-specific selective forces? To\r\ntackle this question, I analyze the patterns of sex-specific phenotypic variation along\r\nthree life stages and across populations spanning the whole geographical range of Rumex\r\nhastatulus, a wind-pollinated angiosperm, in the first Chapter of the thesis.\r\nSecond, how do gene expression patterns lead to phenotypic dimorphism, and what\r\nare the molecular mechanisms underlying the observed transcriptomic variation? I\r\naddress this question by examining the sex- and tissue-specific expression variation in\r\nnewly-generated datasets of sex-specific expression in heads and gonads of Drosophila\r\nmelanogaster. I additionally used two complementary approaches for the study of the\r\ngenetic basis of sex di↵erences in gene expression in the second and third Chapters of\r\nthe thesis.\r\nThird, how does intersex correlation, thought to be one of the main aspects constraining the ability for the two sexes to decouple, interact with the evolution of sexual\r\ndimorphism? I develop models of sex-specific stabilizing selection, mutation and drift\r\nto formalize common intuition regarding the patterns of covariation between intersex\r\ncorrelation and sexual dimorphism in the fourth Chapter of the thesis.\r\nAlltogether, the work described in this PhD thesis provides useful insights into the\r\nlinks between genetic, transcriptomic and phenotypic layers of sex-specific variation,\r\nand contributes to our general understanding of the dynamics of sexual dimorphism\r\nevolution.","lang":"eng"}],"degree_awarded":"PhD","publication_status":"published","date_created":"2023-08-15T10:20:40Z","department":[{"_id":"GradSch"},{"_id":"NiBa"},{"_id":"BeVi"}],"corr_author":"1","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"file":[{"relation":"source_file","access_level":"closed","date_updated":"2023-08-17T06:55:24Z","content_type":"application/zip","checksum":"4e44e169f2724ee8c9324cd60bcc2b71","file_size":10891454,"date_created":"2023-08-16T18:15:17Z","file_id":"14075","file_name":"Thesis_latex_forpdfa.zip","creator":"gpuixeus"},{"checksum":"e10b04cd8f3fecc0d9ef6e6868b6e1e8","content_type":"application/pdf","date_updated":"2023-08-18T10:47:55Z","file_id":"14079","date_created":"2023-08-18T10:47:55Z","file_name":"PhDThesis_PuixeuG.pdf","creator":"gpuixeus","file_size":19856686,"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","success":1}],"publication_identifier":{"issn":["2663-337X"],"isbn":["978-3-99078-035-0"]},"oa":1,"file_date_updated":"2023-08-18T10:47:55Z","author":[{"orcid":"0000-0001-8330-1754","full_name":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma","last_name":"Puixeu Sala","id":"33AB266C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Gemma"}],"ec_funded":1},{"article_type":"original","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkad121","ddc":["570"],"article_processing_charge":"Yes","related_material":{"record":[{"id":"12933","status":"public","relation":"research_data"},{"id":"14058","status":"public","relation":"dissertation_contains"}]},"citation":{"short":"G. Puixeu Sala, A. Macon, B. Vicoso, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 13 (2023).","mla":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma, et al. “Sex-Specific Estimation of Cis and Trans Regulation of Gene Expression in Heads and Gonads of Drosophila Melanogaster.” <i>G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics</i>, vol. 13, no. 8, Oxford University Press, 2023, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad121\">10.1093/g3journal/jkad121</a>.","ieee":"G. Puixeu Sala, A. Macon, and B. Vicoso, “Sex-specific estimation of cis and trans regulation of gene expression in heads and gonads of Drosophila melanogaster,” <i>G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics</i>, vol. 13, no. 8. Oxford University Press, 2023.","ama":"Puixeu Sala G, Macon A, Vicoso B. Sex-specific estimation of cis and trans regulation of gene expression in heads and gonads of Drosophila melanogaster. <i>G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics</i>. 2023;13(8). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad121\">10.1093/g3journal/jkad121</a>","apa":"Puixeu Sala, G., Macon, A., &#38; Vicoso, B. (2023). Sex-specific estimation of cis and trans regulation of gene expression in heads and gonads of Drosophila melanogaster. <i>G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics</i>. Oxford University Press. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad121\">https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad121</a>","chicago":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma, Ariana Macon, and Beatriz Vicoso. “Sex-Specific Estimation of Cis and Trans Regulation of Gene Expression in Heads and Gonads of Drosophila Melanogaster.” <i>G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics</i>. Oxford University Press, 2023. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad121\">https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad121</a>.","ista":"Puixeu Sala G, Macon A, Vicoso B. 2023. Sex-specific estimation of cis and trans regulation of gene expression in heads and gonads of Drosophila melanogaster. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics. 13(8)."},"_id":"14077","month":"08","title":"Sex-specific estimation of cis and trans regulation of gene expression in heads and gonads of Drosophila melanogaster","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","date_published":"2023-08-01T00:00:00Z","has_accepted_license":"1","project":[{"_id":"2564DBCA-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","grant_number":"665385","name":"International IST Doctoral Program","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"grant_number":"25817","_id":"9B9DFC9E-BA93-11EA-9121-9846C619BF3A","name":"Sexual conflict: resolution, constraints and biomedical implications"}],"date_updated":"2026-04-07T13:25:34Z","year":"2023","oa_version":"Published Version","issue":"8","day":"01","type":"journal_article","publisher":"Oxford University Press","status":"public","tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)"},"date_created":"2023-08-18T06:52:14Z","external_id":{"pmid":["37259621"],"isi":["001002997200001"]},"department":[{"_id":"BeVi"},{"_id":"NiBa"},{"_id":"GradSch"}],"language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"corr_author":"1","publication_status":"published","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"The regulatory architecture of gene expression is known to differ substantially between sexes in Drosophila, but most studies performed\r\nso far used whole-body data and only single crosses, which may have limited their scope to detect patterns that are robust across tissues\r\nand biological replicates. Here, we use allele-specific gene expression of parental and reciprocal hybrid crosses between 6 Drosophila\r\nmelanogaster inbred lines to quantify cis- and trans-regulatory variation in heads and gonads of both sexes separately across 3 replicate\r\ncrosses. Our results suggest that female and male heads, as well as ovaries, have a similar regulatory architecture. On the other hand,\r\ntestes display more and substantially different cis-regulatory effects, suggesting that sex differences in the regulatory architecture that\r\nhave been previously observed may largely derive from testis-specific effects. We also examine the difference in cis-regulatory variation\r\nof genes across different levels of sex bias in gonads and heads. Consistent with the idea that intersex correlations constrain expression\r\nand can lead to sexual antagonism, we find more cis variation in unbiased and moderately biased genes in heads. In ovaries, reduced cis\r\nvariation is observed for male-biased genes, suggesting that cis variants acting on these genes in males do not lead to changes in ovary\r\nexpression. Finally, we examine the dominance patterns of gene expression and find that sex- and tissue-specific patterns of inheritance\r\nas well as trans-regulatory variation are highly variable across biological crosses, although these were performed in highly controlled\r\nexperimental conditions. This highlights the importance of using various genetic backgrounds to infer generalizable patterns."}],"acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"ScienComp"}],"volume":13,"quality_controlled":"1","keyword":["Genetics (clinical)","Genetics","Molecular Biology"],"author":[{"full_name":"Puixeu Sala, Gemma","last_name":"Puixeu Sala","first_name":"Gemma","id":"33AB266C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0001-8330-1754"},{"last_name":"Macon","full_name":"Macon, Ariana","first_name":"Ariana","id":"2A0848E2-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-4579-8306","last_name":"Vicoso","full_name":"Vicoso, Beatriz","first_name":"Beatriz","id":"49E1C5C6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"file_date_updated":"2023-11-07T09:00:19Z","scopus_import":"1","publication":"G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics","intvolume":"        13","isi":1,"ec_funded":1,"pmid":1,"file":[{"access_level":"open_access","relation":"main_file","success":1,"content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"c62e29fc7c5efbf8356f4c60cab4a2d1","date_updated":"2023-11-07T09:00:19Z","file_name":"2023_G3_Puixeu.pdf","creator":"dernst","file_id":"14498","date_created":"2023-11-07T09:00:19Z","file_size":845642}],"acknowledgement":"We thank members of the Vicoso Group for comments on the manuscript, the Scientific Computing Unit at ISTA for technical support, and 2 anonymous reviewers for useful feedback. GP is the recipient of a DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (DOC 25817) and received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant (agreement no. 665385).","publication_identifier":{"issn":["2160-1836"]},"oa":1}]