• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, September 7, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home Headlines

Pigeon study takes on sexism in science

Bioengineer.org by Bioengineer.org
January 31, 2018
in Headlines, Health, Science News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis

In experimental research, scientists tend to assume that — unless they are looking specifically at reproduction or sexual behavior — male and female animals are alike, and mostly use males. But a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis and the University of New Hampshire, published April 18 in Scientific Reports, shows surprisingly big differences in tissue gene expression between male and female rock doves. The work is part of an attempt to make science more gender-inclusive and aware of physiological and other differences between the sexes.

"There's a problem of sex and gender inclusion at all levels of science from faculty to the animals we use," said Rebecca Calisi, assistant professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior at UC Davis and senior author on the paper. "We're trying to ameliorate that, at least in reproductive biology."

The problem for experimental science, Calisi said, is that males and females can react very differently to different treatments, even when these don't seem to be sex-related. For example, drugs as well-known as aspirin have different effects in men and women, and women report a higher rate of adverse reactions to drugs than do men.

Hundreds of Differences in Gene Activity

Calisi and co-author Matthew MacManes at the University of New Hampshire are exploring this problem using the reproductive system of the "rock dove," or common pigeon, as C. Samuel Craiga model. Scientists back to Charles Darwin have worked with pigeons, and their physiology is well-studied. Like all other vertebrates, the gonads (testes and ovaries) are influenced by hormones produced by the pituitary gland, which itself is controlled by hormones from the hypothalamus, a structure in the brain. Sex hormones produced by the gonads (testosterone and estradiol) in turn feed back to the hypothalamus. This "hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad" axis is found in animals from fish and lizards to birds and people.

Calisi's team looked at the baseline "transcriptome," capturing all the genes expressed in the hypothalamus, pituitary and gonads in male and female pigeons when they were not engaged in reproductive behavior. They found hundreds of differences in gene activity between males and females.

"There are incredible differences in gene expression, especially in the pituitary," Calisi said. The results show that there are far more sex-based differences in the pituitary than previously thought, she said.

The team has created a publicly accessible database for researchers of all the patterns of gene activation that differ between male and female pigeons. The results should generate new leads for investigating male and female reproduction, and encourage researchers to look harder at the effect of sex bias in physiological studies.

Having established baseline genomic data for the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis in the pigeon model, Calisi and MacManes plan to use it to look at the influence of sex on other conditions, such as stress and parental care.

###

Additional coauthors on the paper are, at UC Davis, Suzanne Austin, April Booth and Victoria Farrar, and Andrew Lang at the University of New Hampshire.

The work is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Media Contact

Andy Fell
[email protected]
530-752-4533
@ucdavisnews

http://www.ucdavis.edu

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

Understanding Nurses’ Incident Reporting Challenges in Mogadishu

September 7, 2025
blank

ECG Insights on Stress in Scorpion Mud Turtle

September 7, 2025

Gender Variations in Microglial Stress Response Uncovered

September 7, 2025

Nitric Oxide Knockdown Affects GABA Neuron Metabolism in Rats

September 7, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    150 shares
    Share 60 Tweet 38
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    116 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • First Confirmed Human Mpox Clade Ib Case China

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • A Laser-Free Alternative to LASIK: Exploring New Vision Correction Methods

    47 shares
    Share 19 Tweet 12

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Understanding Nurses’ Incident Reporting Challenges in Mogadishu

ECG Insights on Stress in Scorpion Mud Turtle

Gender Variations in Microglial Stress Response Uncovered

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.