SynthesisBiology letters2020
The sex with the reduced sex chromosome dies earlier: a comparison across the tree of life.
Synthesis in Biology letters, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Sex-specific inbreeding depression: A meta-analysis.Ecology letters · 2022Pooled it
- The sex with the reduced sex chromosome dies earlier: a comparison across the tree of life.Biology letters · 2020Pooled it
- Carotenoid-based ornaments predict survival in male but not female birds: A meta-analysis.iScience · 2026Article
- Evolutionary genetics of ageing.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Sex differences in response to longevity interventions.Ageing research reviews · 2026Review
- Asymmetric life-history trade-offs shape sex-biased longevity patterns.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Navigating the Semantic Labyrinth of "Sex" in the Study of Reproductive Trait Evolution.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Mechanistic redundancy and hierarchy of aging mechanisms: implications for strategies to extend healthspan and biomarker integration.Frontiers in aging · 2026Review
- Widespread sex-biased gene expression reflects female-biased longevity in a species with environmental sex determination.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Epigenetic Clock Analysis of Sex Chromosome Aneuploidies.Aging cell · 2025Article
- Sex-Chromosome-Dependent Ageing in Female Heterogametic Methylomes.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds.Science advances · 2025Article
- Convergent evolution of H4K16ac-mediated dosage compensation in the ZW species Artemia franciscana.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Sex differences in DNA methylation in bats.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- The effects of loss of Y chromosome on male health.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025Review
- Variation in adult sex ratios in tetrapods is linked to sex chromosomes through mortality differences between males and females.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Sex-specific and cell-type-specific changes in chaperone-mediated autophagy across tissues during aging.Nature aging · 2025Article
- Phylogenetic Relationships of Immune Function and Oxidative Physiology With Sexual Selection and Parental Effort in Male and Female Birds.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- DNA methylation-based age prediction and sex-specific epigenetic aging in a lizard with female-biased longevity.Science advances · 2025Article
- X*Y females exhibit steeper reproductive senescence in the African pygmy mouse.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many taxa show substantial differences in lifespan between the sexes. However, these differences are not always in the same direction. In mammals, females tend to live longer than males, while in birds, males tend to live longer than females. One possible explanation for these differences in lifespan is the unguarded X hypothesis, which suggests that the reduced or absent chromosome in the heterogametic sex (e.g. the Y chromosome in mammals and the W chromosome in birds) exposes recessive deleterious mutations on the other sex chromosome. While the unguarded X hypothesis is intuitively appealing, it had never been subject to a broad test. We compiled male and female longevity data for 229 species spanning 99 families, 38 orders and eight classes across the tree of life. Consistent with the unguarded X hypothesis, a meta-analysis showed that the homogametic sex, on average, lives 17.6% longer than the heterogametic sex. Surprisingly, we found substantial differences in lifespan dimorphism between female heterogametic species (in which the homogametic sex lives 7.1% longer) and male heterogametic species (in which the homogametic sex lives 20.9% longer). Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering chromosome morphology in addition to sexual selection and environment as potential drivers of sexual dimorphism, and advance our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that shape an organism's lifespan.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.