From Genotype × Environment to Transcriptome × Environment: Identifying and Understanding Environmental Influences in the Gene Expression Underlying Sexually Selected Traits

© 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved. This chapter reviews the application of genomic approaches to understanding genotype-by-environment interactions (GEIs) in sexually selected traits. It focuses on gene expression because recent transcriptomic methods offer the best opportunities for new discoveries in this field. The chapter addresses methodological concerns, outline best practices for experimental design, and review predictions for transcriptome-by-environment interactions (TEIs) in sexually selected traits. It also focuses the very important, but still hazy relationship between the transcriptome and the phenotype, and what is expected about the relationship between TEIs and sexually selected traits. Behavioral transcriptomics is a particularly exciting area. In contrast to morphological phenotypes, where the relevant gene expression may occur at earlier developmental stages before the mature phenotype is expressed, the gene expression that underlies sex-specific mating behaviors may be confined to the adult.