Sexual dimorphism articles from across Nature Portfolio

Research aimed at improving healthcare has largely focused on male animals and cells. Here, the authors use data from the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium to show that body weight does not account for all phenotypic differences between male and female mice, supporting more female-focused research.

Prostaglandin E₂ signaling mediates the estrogenic regulation of peptidergic neuronal activity and female receptivity via the ptger4b gene pathway in Japanese rice fish.

A study maps neuronal genomic targets of oestrogen receptor-α and shows how they coordinate brain sexual differentiation, concluding that the genome remains responsive to hormonal changes after structural dimorphisms have been established.

Neural deletion of the estrogen receptor, ERα, inhibits sexual behavior in female mice, but only has moderately effect in male mice. These results contrast with previous studies using global ERα knockouts, which found that ERα is mandatory for reproductive behavior in both sexes.

Sex as a biological variable influences almost all aspects of health and disease, yet many research studies use only males or do not consider sex differences. We describe why sex-specific reporting is needed, including in basic and animal research, and we outline recommendations for sex-specific reporting in manuscript abstracts, Methods and Results sections, tables and figures.

In flies, neurons that are common to both sexes regulate aggressive approach, whereas other, sex-specific neurons control attack behaviours.

The neural circuitry that coordinates mating and egg laying in female flies is identified.