Sex Hormones and Immune Dimorphism

The functioning of the immune system of the body is regulated by many factors. The abnormal regulation of the immune system may result in some pathological conditions. Sex hormones of reproductive system are one of the major factors that regulate immune system due to the presence of hormone receptors on immune cells. The interaction of sex hormones and immune cells through the receptors on these cells effect the release of cytokines which determines the proliferation, differentiation, and maturation of different types of immunocytes and as a result the outcome of inflammatory or autoimmune diseases. The different regulations of sex hormones in both sexes result in immune dimorphism. In this review article the mechanism of regulation of immune system in different sexes and its impact are discussed

Data from: The purging of deleterious mutations in simple and complex mating environments

There is a general expectation that sexual selection should align with natural selection to aid the purging of deleterious mutations, yet experiments comparing purging under monogamy vs. polygamy have provided mixed results. Recent studies suggest that this may be because the simplified mating environments used in these studies reduces the benefit of sexual selection through males and hampers natural selection through females by increasing costs associated with sexual conflict. To test the effect of the physical mating environment on purging, we use experimental evolution in Drosophila melanogaster to track the frequency of four separate deleterious mutations in replicate populations that experience polygamy under either a simple or structurally complex mating arena while controlling for arena size. Consistent with past results suggesting a greater net benefit of polygamy in a complex environment, two of the mutations were purged significantly faster in this environment. The other two mutations showed no significant difference between environments

Mutant allele and homozygote mutant genotype frequencies from experimental populations

This file contains data on mutant allele frequencies and homozygote mutant genotype frequencies at various time points (generations) in independent, replicate populations experimentally evolving in either a complex or simple mating environment. Each row corresponds to a frequency estimate from a particular population in a given generation. Columns are: mutant: the mutation in question; population: an arbitrary ID number given to each replicate population (6 populations per mutation, 3 in each treatment); treatment: simple vs. complex mating treatment; generation: the generation in which the given frequency was estimated; type: whether the frequency is that of the mutant allele (as estimate from a set of test crosses) or the mutant homozygote genotype; frequency - the frequency estimate expressed as a proportion

Table S1. Initial geneotype and allele frequencies. from The purging of deleterious mutations in simple and complex mating environments

Initial genotype and allele frequencies in replicate experimental populations of each mutation upon their foundin

Figure S1. Pictures of the simple complex mating arenas. from The purging of deleterious mutations in simple and complex mating environments

Overhead views of the simple and complex mating arenas with the lids removed and inverted