UCLA Neuroscience Program Ph.D. Admissions Neuroscience Faculty UCLA and Beyond  



Arthur Arnold
Sexual Differentiation of the Brain

Email Address:  arnold@ucla.edu
Home Page: http://www.physci.ucla.edu/html/arnold.htm

Laboratory Address:
LSB 4117
Work Address:
LSB 4117
Phone Numbers:
(310)825-2169 Office
(310)825-9340 Laboratory

Selected Publications:

Arnold AP, Itoh Y, Melamed E A bird's eye view of sex chromosome dosage compensation. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 2008; in press: .
*Gioiosa L, *Chen X (co-first authors), Watkins R, Klanfer N, Bryant CD, Evans CJ, Arnold AP Sex chromosome complement affects nociception in tests of actue and chronic exposure to morphine in mice. Hormones and Behavior 2008; 54: 124-130.
Chen X, Watkins R, Delot E, Releine R, Schiestl RH, Burgoyne PS, Arnold AP Sex difference in neural tube defects in p53-null mice is caused by differences in the complement of X not Y genes.. Developmental Neurobiology 2008; 68: 265-273.
*Itoh Y, *Melamed E (*co-first authors), Yang X, Kampf K, Wang S, Yehya N, Van Nas A, Replogle K, Band MR, Clayton DF, Schadt EE, Lusis AJ, Arnold AP Dosage compensation is less effective in birds than in mammals. Journal of Biology. 2007; 6: 2.
Melamed E, Arnold AP Regional differences in dosage compensation on the chicken Z chromosome. Genome Biology 2007; 8: R202.
Quinn JJ, Hitchcott PK, Umeda EA, Arnold AP, Taylor JR Sex chromosome complement determines habit formation. Nature Neuroscience 2007; 10: 1398-1400.
Gatewood JD, Wills A, Shetty S, Xu J, Arnold AP, Burgoyne PS, Rissman EF. Sex chromosome complement and gonadal sex influence aggressive and parental behaviors in mice. Journal of Neuroscience 2006; 26: 2335-2342.
Palaszynski KM, Smith DL, Burgoyne PS, Arnold AP, Voskuhl RR A yin-yang effect between sex chromosomes and sex hormones on the immune response. Endocrinology 2005; 146: 3280-3285.
Chen X, Agate RJ, Itoh Y, Arnold AP Sexually dimorphic expression of trkB, a Z-linked gene, in early posthatch zebra finch brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 2005; 102: 7730-7735.
Arnold, AP Burgoyne, PS Are XX and XY brain cells intrinsically different?. Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM. . 2004; 15(1): 6-11.
Agate RJ, Grisham W, Wade J, Mann S, Wingfield J, Schanen C, Palotie A, Arnold AP Neural not gonadal origin of brain sex differences in a gynandromorphic finch.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 2003; 100: 4873-4878.
Carruth LC, Reisert I, Arnold AP Direct effect of sex chromosome genes on brain sexual differentiation.. Nature Neuroscience 2002; 5: 933-934.
De Vries GJ, Rissman EF, Simerly RB, Yang L-Y , Scordalakes EM, Auger C, Swain A, Lovell-Badge R, Burgoyne PS, Arnold AP Sex chromosome effects on the induction of sexually dimorphic neural and behavioral development.. Journal of Neuroscience 2002; 22: 9005-9014.
Arnold AP Sex chromosomes and brain gender. Nature Reviews Neuroscience . 2004; 5(9): 701-8.
Research Interest:

We study the forces that differentiate male and female tissues. Sexual differentiation underlies sex differences in behavior, physiology, and susceptibility to disease. Our recent research on mice indicates that genes on the sex chromosomes, X and Y genes, are expressed differently in male and female cells and induce sex differences in non-gonadal tissues. These direct genetic actions interact with effects of gonadal hormones in the two sexes. Our goal is to identify X and Y genes that contribute to sex differences in tissue function and disease, and to understand the mechanisms of their action. We also study sex chromosome dosage compensation in birds. Males have two Z chromosomes but females have one. Birds have an ineffective mechanism of dosage compensation, which is not predicted from study of mammals and other XX/XY systems. We seek to understand the epigenetic modifications of the Z chromosome that regulate gene dosage, and the evolution of dosage compensation mechanisms.