---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '21161'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: In many species, sex-biased expression is widespread and thought to contribute
to sexual dimorphism. While bulk RNA-sequencing has been instrumental in identifying
strongly sex-biased genes, it lacks resolution to assess variation across cell-types
and tissue compartments. Using single-nucleus expression data from the Fly Cell
Atlas, we investigate sex differences in adult Drosophila melanogaster. We find
that differences in cell-type composition between the sexes are not a major source
of sex-bias, as for the vast majority of genes, the degree of sex-bias is similar
regardless of whether sex differences in cell-type composition are controlled
for or not. Our analysis confirms a deficit of X-linked male-biased genes in the
body’s somatic tissues that is widespread across cell-types. We also find the
excess of X-linked female-biased genes to be associated with nervous system cells
in the head but with epithelial cells in the body’s somatic tissues, showing that
single-nucleus data crucially resolves sex-bias at the cell-type level. We investigate
dosage compensation (DC) across 15 tissues and 17 cell-types. We observe that
it varies throughout the body. Surprisingly, we observe a lack of DC in a cluster
of main cells within the male accessory glands. This result highlights the importance
of understanding context-dependent DC.
acknowledged_ssus:
- _id: ScienComp
- _id: Bio
acknowledgement: This work was partly funded by an Austrian Science Foundation FWF
ESPRIT fellowship (10.55776/ESP6331524) to C.B. We would like to thank the Vicoso
group for their invaluable input and discussions throughout this work. We thank
Filip Ruzicka for his insightful comments on the manuscript. All computational resources
were provided by the Scientific Computing Unit at ISTA. This research was also supported
through resources provided by the Imaging & Optics Facility (IOF) at ISTA.
article_number: '20252471'
article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal)
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Carolina
full_name: De Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata, Carolina
id: 20565186-803f-11ed-ab7e-96a4ff7694ef
last_name: De Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata
orcid: 0000-0003-1945-2245
- first_name: Beatriz
full_name: Vicoso, Beatriz
id: 49E1C5C6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Vicoso
orcid: 0000-0002-4579-8306
citation:
ama: de Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata C, Vicoso B. Single-nucleus resolution of
sex-biased expression and dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings
of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 2026;293(2063). doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.2471
apa: de Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata, C., & Vicoso, B. (2026). Single-nucleus
resolution of sex-biased expression and dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. Royal Society of
London. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2471
chicago: Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata, Carolina de, and Beatriz Vicoso. “Single-Nucleus
Resolution of Sex-Biased Expression and Dosage Compensation in Drosophila Melanogaster.”
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. Royal Society of
London, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2471.
ieee: C. de Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata and B. Vicoso, “Single-nucleus resolution
of sex-biased expression and dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster,”
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, vol. 293, no. 2063.
Royal Society of London, 2026.
ista: de Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata C, Vicoso B. 2026. Single-nucleus resolution
of sex-biased expression and dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings
of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 293(2063), 20252471.
mla: de Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata, Carolina, and Beatriz Vicoso. “Single-Nucleus
Resolution of Sex-Biased Expression and Dosage Compensation in Drosophila Melanogaster.”
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, vol. 293, no. 2063,
20252471, Royal Society of London, 2026, doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.2471.
short: C. de Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata, B. Vicoso, Proceedings of the Royal
Society B Biological Sciences 293 (2026).
corr_author: '1'
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-02-08T23:02:49Z
date_published: 2026-01-28T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-07-08T09:17:41Z
day: '28'
ddc:
- '570'
department:
- _id: BeVi
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2025.2471
external_id:
pmid:
- '41592777'
file:
- access_level: open_access
checksum: d76afebca0a6f112df0146ae2d929f36
content_type: application/pdf
creator: dernst
date_created: 2026-02-16T09:26:02Z
date_updated: 2026-02-16T09:26:02Z
file_id: '21226'
file_name: 2026_RoyalSocPubProceedingsB_Barata.pdf
file_size: 2230841
relation: main_file
success: 1
file_date_updated: 2026-02-16T09:26:02Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: ' 293'
issue: '2063'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '01'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 90ef7108-16d5-11f0-9cad-e6e116913473
grant_number: ESP 6331524
name: Does genetic drift set a limit on the adaptive evolution of sex-biased expression?
publication: Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 1471-2954
publication_status: published
publisher: Royal Society of London
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Single-nucleus resolution of sex-biased expression and dosage compensation
in Drosophila melanogaster
tmp:
image: /images/cc_by.png
legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 293
year: '2026'
...