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Neurobiology

Wired for sex

Nature volume 533, pages 188–189 (2016)Cite this article

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Analysis of a sensory neural circuit in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans reveals that its wiring is sex-specific, and arises through the elimination of connections that are originally formed in both sexes. See Article p.206

If presented with a human brain, even the most meticulous neuroanatomist would be hard-pressed to identify the sex of its former owner. There are clearly male–female differences in some brain regions, but these can be subtle and variable, and their causes and consequences remain largely unclear. Over the past five years, work in several organisms1,2,3 has suggested that altered neural connectivity between brain regions might be a hallmark of male–female differences. On page 206 of this issue, Oren-Suissa et al.4 provide clear evidence for sex differences in neural wiring in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. Moreover, they report that these differences arise through sex-specific eradication of neural connections and are controlled by the genetic sex of the nervous system itself.

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Figure 1: Lost in maturation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Douglas S. Portman is in the Department of Biomedical Genetics and the Center for Neural Development and Disease, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA.,

    Douglas S. Portman

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  1. Douglas S. Portman
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Correspondence to Douglas S. Portman.

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Portman, D. Wired for sex. Nature 533, 188–189 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17898

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