作者：石梦威

【注】该新闻发表在南湖新闻网http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2019/0114/53528.shtml?tdsourcetag=s_pctim_aiomsg

2019 年1月8日，国际知名学术期刊《Nucleic Acids Research》以“SAGD: a comprehensive sex-associated gene database from transcriptomes”为题在线发表了我校生命科学技术学院陈振夏团队的最新研究成果（https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/47/D1/D835/5150230），文章报道了该实验室和华中科技大学郭安源实验室联合开发的包含众多物种中性别相关基因的数据库。

有性生殖的动物通常在形态、生理和行为等表型上具有显著的雌雄差异。这种差异是因为存在着大量在雌雄之间具有表达差异的基因，也就是性别相关基因（SAG）。对性别相关基因的研究不仅对于理解基因调控和演化具有重要意义，而且其在动物繁殖和害虫控制中也具有很重要的应用价值。此外，越来越多的证据表明，性别相关基因是影响神经退行性疾病、心血管疾病和癌症等各种疾病风险的关键因素。同时由于精准医疗的兴起，性别作为物种间最大的形态差异不可避免的成为了精准医疗的研究重点。虽然目前测序数据众多，但是依然没有一个是以性别为关注点，并不适合性别相关基因的研究，所以为了使跨物种的性别之间的基因表达比较成为可能，陈振夏教授课题组手动收集了目前的测序数据用于差异分析，并将结果整合成一个可供访问的数据库（SAGD）。

课题组通过整合三个数据库的元数据信息，Expression Atlas、NCBI Short Read Archive（SRA）和NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus（GEO），来筛选合适的数据集用于差异分析。最后得到了21个物种，共2,828个测序样本。从这21个物种中鉴定了27,793个雌性偏向的性别相关基因和64,043个雄性偏向的性别相关基因，并将表达信息整理成数据库供研究者使用。同时该数据库还整合了drugbank的药物靶点信息，将作为药物靶点的基因整合进基因信息中。数据库可以通过多种方式访问到需要的基因，同时每个基因都提供了较为详细的基础信息和分析得到的差异信息。该网站还提供了筛选得到的数据集的注释可供研究者做更进一步的分析。

据悉，SAGD网站的建立，为探究性别差异的研究提供了极大的便利。生命科学技术学院陈振夏课题组18级研究生石梦威和张纳安为本论文的并列第一作者，生命科学技术学院陈振夏教授和华中科技大学生命科学技术学院郭安源教授为本文的共同通讯作者。该研究工作得到华中农业大学科技自主创新基金、国家自然科学基金等项目的资助。

===========================================

ChenLab has developed a Database of Sex-associated Genes from Multiple Species
(Translated by Chuanpin Shi)

Core Tip: On January 8, 2019, the famous international academic journal Nucleic Acids Research published the latest research results made by Professor Zhen-Xia Chen’s team from Life Science and Technology College of Huazhong Agricutural University (HZAU). The article reported a database containing sex-associated genes in many species which is codeveloped with An-yuan Guo's laboratory from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).
Nanhu News Network (Correspondent Shi Mengwei) reported that on January 8, 2019, the internationally famous academic journal Nucleic Acids Research published the latest research result by the Professor Zhenxia Chen's team on the topic of “SAGD: acomprehensive sex-associated gene database from transcriptomes”, which reports a database containing gender-related genes in many species.  
Sexually reproducing animals usually demonstrate remarkable differences between females and males in morphological, physiological and behavioral phenotypes. Such differences are caused by the large amount of sex-associated genes (SAGs), which have varied expression between females and males. The study of SAGs is not only important for understanding gene regulation and evolution, but also for the application in animal reproduction and pests control. Moreover, SAGs are a key factor affecting the risk of all kinds of diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancers, and have been linked to precision medicine with increasing evidence .Although there are many sequencing data at present, none of them are focused on gender and are not suitable for gender-related genes. Therefore, in order to make the comparison of gene expression between sexes across species possible, Professor Zhenxia Chen's group manually collected the current sequencing data for differential analysis and integrated the results into a database accessible (SAGD).
The research team mapped the appropriate data sets for differential analysis by integrating the metadata information of the three databases, Expression Atlas, NCBI Short Read Archive (SRA) and NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO).Finally, 21 species were obtained, with a total of 2,828 sequencing samples. From these 21 species, 27,793 female-biased sex-related genes and 64,043 male-biased sex-related genes were identified, and the expression information was compiled into a database for researchers to use.The site also provides annotations for the filtered data sets for further analysis by the researcher.
It is reported that the establishment of the SAGD website has greatly facilitated the study of sex differences. The 2018 graduate students of the School of Life Science and Technology Meng-wei Shi and Na-an Zhang are the co-first authors of this paper. 
The co-authors of this article are from Professor Chen's lab at HZAU and Professor Guo's lab at HUST.The research Huazhong Agricultural University Scientific & Technological Self-innovation Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation.