Ingleby, FC; Morrow, EH; (2017) Sexual dimorphism in the Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae) metabolome increases throughout development. European Journal of Entomology , 114 pp. 249-256. 10.14411/eje.2017.030.

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Abstract

The expression of sexually dimorphic phenotypes from a shared genome between males and females is a longstanding puzzle in evolutionary biology. Increasingly, research has made use of transcriptomic technology to examine the molecular basis of sexual dimorphism through gene expression studies, but even this level of detail misses the metabolic processes that ultimately link gene expression with the whole organism phenotype. We use metabolic profi ling in Drosophila melanogaster to complete this missing step, with a view to examining variation in male and female metabolic profi les, or metabolomes, throughout development. We show that the metabolome varies considerably throughout larval, pupal and adult stages. We also fi nd signifi cant sexual dimorphism in the metabolome, although only in pupae and adults, and the extent of dimorphism increases throughout development. We compare this to transcriptomic data from the same population and fi nd that the general pattern of increasing sex differences throughout development is mirrored in RNA expression. We discuss our results in terms of the usefulness of metabolic profi ling in linking genotype and phenotype to more fully understand the basis of sexually dimorphic phenotypes.

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