Fig. 3

Regulation of sex-biased pituitary gene expression by miRNAs and transcriptional regulators (TRs). A Interaction network of sex-biased miRNAs and their sex-biased target genes for all ages. Each node represents a gene (gray) or a miRNA (orange) with the node size representing its number of connections with other nodes. Outlines on nodes indicate gene/miRNA is female-biased (red) or male-biased (blue). Only miRNAs with 2 or more connections are shown. Edges between each node show a predicted interaction between the miRNA and gene. Edge thickness indicates Spearman’s correlation coefficient (rho) calculated for the given pair. B Heatmap of sex-biased pituitary TR gene expression. TRs which are sex-biased in the same direction at a minimum of two ages between PD27, PD32, and PD37 are plotted. Colors of the heatmap represent row-scaled and centered expression levels of each gene. Column annotation bars indicate sample age and sex. Row annotation bars indicate age at which the gene was found to be sex-biased. C Scatterplot comparing Lisa TR rankings with combined P-values predicted to regulate female- and male-biased genes. Each TR is represented by a point. The combined − log10(P-value) is plotted for each TR based on female-biased and male-biased gene sets which are sex-biased in the same direction at a minimum of two ages between PD27, PD32 and PD37. Colored points show TRs which have change in − log10(p-value) between sexes which is two standard deviations greater than the mean change in − log10(p-value). Red points indicate TRs which are enriched for regulating female-biased genes; blue points indicate TRs which are enriched for regulating male-biased genes