Transcriptome

Depression (economics)

Sex characteristics

Population

Biology

Gene

Macroeconomics

Epigenomics

Gene expression

Psychology

Economics

DNA methylation

Epigenetics

Genetics

Medicine

Environmental health

Biological Psychiatry

Both history of early-life stress (ELS) and female sex are associated with increased risk for depression. The complexity of how ELS interacts with brain development and sex to impart risk for multifaceted neuropsychiatric disorders is also unlikely to be understood by examining changes in single genes. Here, we review an emerging literature on genome-wide transcriptional and epigenetic signatures of ELS and the potential moderating influence of sex. We discuss evidence both that there are latent sex differences revealed by ELS and that ELS itself produces latent transcriptomic changes revealed by adult stress.

Genome-wide Signatures of Early-Life Stress: Influence of Sex