Fig. 4

Candidate potential critical genes central for sex determination. a Cross comparison between development- and sex-dependent DEGs (FDR < 0.01; Fig. 2) was performed among Day 0 to Day 12, and a total of 230 genes were identified as candidate genes for A. mississippiensis sex determination. Green and orange arrows indicate up- and down-regulation, respectively, with number of corresponding genes indicated. The majority of gene expression dynamics associated with development was observed to be MPT-specific. Further information is available in Additional file 6. b Hierarchical clustering analysis of sexual dimorphism (M-F log₂FC) in the candidate genes at Day 3, 6, and 12. Red color indicates high z-score (female biased expression) while blue indicates a low z-score (male biased expression)